


Martian Child

by name_me_regret



Series: We’re All Martians [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Avengers Are Nosy, Gen, Identity Porn, Peter Parker - Freeform, Peter is actual Intern, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Smart Peter Parker, Super Genius Peter Parker, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark doesn't know Peter Parker is Spider-man, early meetings, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2019-11-06 11:36:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17938925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/name_me_regret/pseuds/name_me_regret
Summary: Right now, you and me, put together entirely from atoms.., sitting on this round rock with a core of liquid iron held down by .... gravity... and amidst all this frantic activity, fully cognizant of our own imminent demise... we reach out, to one another... sometimes for reasons you're not old enough to understand yet, we reach out... and expect nothing in return.Or,Peter is a super genius and gets discovered by Tony Stark almost a year early... Also, he doesn’t know he’s Spider-Man...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a fragmented idea I may or may not continue... my muses are very finicky like that...
> 
> Quote from Martian Child, and although I take the title from the movie/book, there’s very little to do with the actual storyline and this fic.

**Prologue**

_“I guess if I'm breathing this is not the end_   
_I guess if I love myself I have a friend_   
_Oh and if there's nothing left I have your voice_   
_Talking me into sleep, into the void”_

~The Void - IAMX

\----

Peter liked old movies, he liked Star Wars and Alien, and so many science-fiction movies, even when there’s very little to do with science in them. He should know, since he loves science and learns as much as he can about it. His uncle Ben showed him these movies, in an effort to distract him from completely losing himself to books. Then his aunt May introduced him to feel good movies like August Rush, and Martian Child. At times, he feels like that boy Dennis, out of place in a world that doesn’t understand him. Except where the boy thought he was from Mars, it’s his own mind that at times isolates him.

_“Right now, you and me here, put together entirely from atoms that have been part of millions of other organisms before they became us, sitting on this round rock with a core of liquid iron held down by this force that so troubles you called gravity, all the while spinning around the sun at 67 thousand miles an hour and whizzing through the Milky Way at 600 thousand miles an hour in a universe that very well may be chasing its own tail at the speed of light... and amidst all this frantic activity, fully cognizant of our own imminent demise, which is a very pretty way of saying we all know we're going to die, we reach out, to one another, sometimes for the sake of vanity, sometimes for reasons you're not old enough to understand yet, but a lot of the time we just reach out... and expect nothing in return. Isn't that strange? Isn't that weird? Isn't that... weird... enough?”_

Peter certainly thinks it is weird enough, if he were to just think of that and just exist. However, with a mind like his, it’s never easy. He knows the Earth travels around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour and they’re held on by the gravitational pull due to the Earth’s liquid iron core. His mind never stops there, it switches from one thought to another so quickly it may very well be going 67,000 miles an hour as well. Like his Uncle’s Star Wars moives, his mind seems to be in constant warp drive. To calm the thoughts, he’ll start building, mostly LEGOS since his friend Ned always has the ones with so many pieces that’ll keep his mind occupied and slow it down a bit. The movies do that for him as well.

They call him a genius, they tested him at school to make sure and they praised his high intellect. To Peter, it feels like he can’t get any rest as his mind refuses to shut down with its never ending litany of ‘Why? Why? Why?!

In the span of a minute he’ll be thinking of bio-molecular biology, and then cement glue and how to improve it, and then wondering if he can build his own Iron Man suit using scrap metal and the tools in shop class. He probably could if he was so inclined, and only the fact that he was sure his teacher would report him to homeland security (or the avengers) stops him. Also, because he’s sure it would be a piece of shit (he’s not suppose to swear but sometimes he sneaks one or two swear words) due to his lack of quality materials.

So, he turns his attention to the glue and improves it and it’s better than his Uncle decides to get it patented. He’s constantly changing it, but doesn’t tell him. When he’s thirteen, the Sokovia incident happens and he builds a prototype robot that could take destroyed rubble and use it to potentially rebuild a whole new building by imputing the building plans in it’s computer.

He does it because he’s bored and he can, and wants to help. He’s Peter Benjamin Parker, and he’s only thirteen but his IQ is 200 (maybe more, he was sleep deprived that day) and his Uncle once told him, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Well, Peter wants to use his intellect to help others. He has no idea the changes that were soon to come.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter remembers fireworks, and then monsters that may or may not be aliens. The world is becoming a bit more chaotic, and he just wants to help...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is just me rambling through the events starting from around Iron Man 2 to Homecoming, but just barely. I have no beta, so all the mistakes are mine. I would love some feedback, although I won’t hold my breath. For some reason, people are allergic to commenting. There is no posting schedule. I write the chapters and post when I finish up, no proof-reading, just... bam!

**Chapter** **One**

 _“On the rainy nights, even the coldest days_  
You're moments ago but seconds away  
The principal of nature, it's true but  
It's a cruel world...”

~Heavy Cross - Gossip

 

————

There were explosions around him, and it was not unlike the fireworks during a hot summer night in July.

 _‘Look, Peter! Aren’t they beautiful?’_ His mother (mama, but was too old now to refer to her as that) face lit with joy and her slightly curled brown hair illuminated by the light of the fireworks. She would always get him to tear his attention away from his ever shifting thoughts, exploring exploring and learning about everything and nothing.

The sky would be lit up with bursts of colors, and he would be mesmerized. His mind would settle for the moment as he stared up as they heavens came alive in color, and explosions that hurt his ear. She would come and cover his ears and then it was alright, and all he saw was the lights like a multitude of stars of all different colors.

He was smart, so he knew stars didn’t look like that, and they only sparkled while seen through their atmosphere. In space they didn’t _‘twinkle’_ as they nursery rhyme said. Peter also knew that fireworks couldn’t be seen from space (probably, he’d never been), and being smart as he was, he knew this.

Peter was too smart to believe the platitudes of adults, but in those moments as his mama covered his ears while they watched the fireworks together with his papa, he pretended he did believe. The child pretended like a child his age that the fireworks could be seen from space, and far far away beings from other worlds might see them. They would be like Morse code. _‘We are here. We are alive.’_

Then his parents boarded a plane and never returned, and he put away childish fantasies, even if he was just barely four years old. He was still a child, but how could he feel such pain and grief over their death? Surely he was much much older than just four, he had to be or it would be too much to contained inside his little body.

Peter grew up and started to forget their faces; his mother’s arms (she gave the best hugs and was warm and smelled of a nice shampoo that he could no longer remember), and his father’s strong and steady hands as they lifted the boy onto his board shoulders so he could see the fireworks better.

He missed them so much it hurt, but as children often do (even when they didn’t feel like one), he slowly started to forget they’d ever been there.

_2010_

Now, as the droids attacked, their SAMs exploding in the air as they tried to destroy Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, Peter was distracted by the explosions in the air. They were like fireworks and he accidentally got lost in a memory he hadn’t known he still remembered, and then realized he had gotten separated from his aunt and uncle. He glanced around, but they were nowhere to be seen and people were running, and screaming and shoving...

Peter couldn’t see too well due to the mask he wore, but he didn’t dare take it off. Iron Man was brave, and Peter needed to be brave even as he felt his knees buckle they were shaking so hard. He was alright, he was fine. He was not a child, he was Iron Man.

When a Hammeroid walked up to him with a clanking sound, terrified people running away and paying no attention to the little boy, Peter wasn’t afraid. He lifted his hand, even if he knew the toy gauntlets were fake. As the droid prepared to fire, he wondered if he would now be able to see his parents and watch the fireworks together again. Peter certainly hoped so, and he also hoped it didn’t hurt.

Then the droid exploded as Peter jumped in shock and fright. “Nice work, kid!” He turned to see the real Iron Man blast off back into the air, the eight year old having been too preoccupied to notice he’d landed behind him.

Peter watched after him as several droids and War Machine gave chase, still trying to blast him out of the sky. Then he went out of Peter’s line of sight, hearing several explosions a bit far off from where he was. The boy turned back to the destroyed droid and walked over to it as he crouched down to examine it. He wondered if he’d be able to get away with taking a few pieces of the droid.

“Peter!” he heard moments before he was yanked up and into his Auny May’s arms. It wasn’t as nice as his mother’s hugs, but he could scarcely remember her anyways, and May smelled like green apple shampoo and it was a very nice smell. He allowed her to carry him away as he wrapped his arms around her neck and legs around her waist, even if he was too old to be carried.

Peter allowed it this once, because he was sure his legs would shake if she set him down.

Just as they left the park, what was left of the Hanmerdroids started to explode in a rush of fire and deafening noise, and in the distance he thought he might have glimpsed Iron Man. As for Peter, who was being hugged by Ben as he met up with them, he was glad he hadn’t been allowed to take any of the pieces of the droid.

“Hey, May, guess what,” he whispered close to her ear. Ben had offered to take him, but May had refused to let him go as her arms held him. His head was resting on her shoulder as his legs wrapped around her middle, and it was a good thing he was small for his age.

May hummed to show she was listening. “I met Iron Man,” he said, a childish giggle escaping him before he could stop himself. He was so embarrassed. Peter just couldn’t help himself, because this was Iron Man!

The woman smiled, liking the sound of that adorable sound and always lamented that being as smart as he was, he seemed to be growing up too fast. “That’s great, honey,” she said, even if she didn’t like his infatuation with the man. Just last week there had been videos of him on the internet of him peeing inside that suit of his!

Peter moaned softly as she started to rub his back, his eyes starting to close in drowsiness. “It’s alright, sweetheart... you can sleep,” she reassured him. He was still at the age of having to sleep early, and today had been a long day and he had refused a nap. May was sure it was well past nine-thirty, but she had dropped her phone in the panic and didn’t have a watch on her. However, the most important thing, or rather person, was in her arms and she wasn’t letting him go. She loved her dear husband, but since Peter had come into their lives, despite the fact that she had never wanted kids, he had stolen her heart. Her little genius; her little boy.

_2012_

The day the Chitauri came, he was in school. It was a Wednesday and it was almost time for lunch. Aunt May wasn’t the best cook, so he enjoyed the school meals only because they were a bit more edible than the lunches she would pack him. It was easy for him to use reverse psychology to get her to stop making the lunches and give him lunch money instead. At times he was burdened with his intellect, but when it came to this particular thing, he was so glad he was smarter than his (wonderful but frightening) Aunt May.

“Dude, my dad bought me the X-wing Starfighter,” his friend squeaked beside him. He felt for him, since he’d started early on puberty and his voice cracked whenever he spoke. It was lucky for Peter that he hadn’t gone through it yet, and he was dreading it. They were ten (their birthdays were both after the deadline for registration of the school year), and as far as he was concerned, he didn’t need to go through puberty! It was all so gross.

They’d been given _’The Talk’._ He had studied this on his own, and Peter had thought he was prepared for it when his Aunt and Uncle decided he needed to hear it. However, nothing had prepared him for the sheer embarrassment and awkwardness of said talk. It made him want to never look at anyone like _that._

The attack happened in Manhattan, the wormhole opening up to release an army of hostile non-Terran lifeforms. It was twenty or maybe ten minutes when alerts were sent out, and the fire alarm went off. The students, halfway through lunch, were confused since they usually had fire drills in the mornings well before lunch. Besides, the teachers looked confused and then Mr. Moriata, the vice-principal, rushed in and started to tell the teachers to lead the students to the gym.

“What’s happening?” Ned asked as he stood, and he and Peter joined the rest of their confused classmates.

Peter frowned and looked around, grabbing his backpack, since he had his inhaler inside and he was starting to get shaky. “I dunno, man,” he muttered, brown eyes watching some of the teachers whispering frantically to one another, pale and looking terrified. “Something is happening.”

His curiosity had to be sated, so he grabbed his friend’s hand and pulled him as best as he could through the press of bodies toward the teachers. He wasn’t going to ask them, because even if it was a STEM school and most of the students were super smart, they still saw them as children. So, he got to the edge of the press of bodies, keeping close to the teachers. He caught the words ‘attack’ and ‘monsters’ and was thoroughly confused. _‘What the heck?’_

There was too much noise from the nervous students to hear anymore and soon the two friends were being forced to enter the gym due to the overwhelming press of bodies. He hated it. Peter wasn’t a fan of being touched by people he didn’t know and his head was starting to hurt and his breaths were coming quickly until he was gasping for his next breath.

Ned saw his dilema and used his greater body mass to push through the crowd with his hand intertwined with his best friends, and finally finally they reached the wall and were away from the crowd. “Are you alright?” he asked worriedly, seeing as Peter scrambled to open his backpack.

“Ye... _gasp_... yea... ju-just... n-need... in... haler,” he wheezed, fumbling with said inhaler and bringing it to his mouth. He pressed down and the hiss of the inhaler was heard before his lungs relaxed as the medicine was administered.

“Are you boys alright?” a voice asked, and Peter lifted his head to see the chemistry teacher. Peter nodded and after studying his face, eyes darting to the inhaler in his hand, gave a sharp nod. “Get to a seat, both of you.”

The man walked off and Peter waited a moment and when he was sure he wouldn’t have another attack, and then walked toward the bleachers. There was the murmur of talking as the students wondered amongst themselves about what could be happening. They received no answers and merely told to settle down a few times from the gathered teachers. A few of them were on their phones, and so were some of the students.

The whispering became more heated and there were some shocked gasps as well, and Peter wondered what was happening. They were too poor to afford a phone, and the crappy flip phone he had was mostly just for emergencies. He’d been trying to get his aunt and uncle to get him an actual phone, a smart phone that he could actually use to get on the Internet. Thus far, he had been unsuccessful despite his superb persuasion methods and his secret weapon, _‘the puppy dog eyes’._ They were surprisingly affective, but even they couldn’t get him a proper phone.

A girl sitting next to them had her YouTube amp open and was watching a shaky video that had been uploaded in the last half an hour. “Oh my God... _oh my God_!” she was whispering as she watched the video with wide blue eyes.

Peter couldn’t stand the curiosity and looked over as the video looped when she pressed the repeat tab with a shaking finger. He angled his head and finally saw what had shaken her so badly. Oh my God...

There were creatures like the stuff of nightmares flying over Manhattan, the video taken from a rooftop by someone that kept having to duck every time one of those creatures flew by overhead. They were not from this world and as they filmed over the edge of the rooftop, it could be seen that someone was fighting them! From the Empire State Building, he saw the gathering of storm clouds and then lightning hit it before bursts of lightning headed toward... a portal that was spewing these creatures.

“Oh crap... oh crap,” he hissed, Ned looking over as the person filming had to rush back inside, the video shaking as he ran before it cut off.

Peter and the girl looked at each other wide eyed and she quickly looked for another video. The next one wasn’t that much better quality and had been uploaded not even ten minutes ago. It showed a very shaky video once again, but they could see Iron Man flying in the distance. There was no mistaking the red of the armor and the repulsors.

“What is happening?” He could tell that a lot of people had found the low quality videos of people brave enough (or stupid enough) to film the battle taking over Manhattan, right now, and they were glued to their phones. The teachers were doing much of the same thing and after a third video, Peter had to take another breath from his inhaler. _Holy shit!_

In the end, something happened and the attack, or whatever it had been, came to an end. Peter was worried about his aunt, since she was a nursing assistant in the city. His uncle was a police officer, but he was thankfully based in Queens and not Manhattan. His phone rang as the students were being let out early when they had ascertained that the battle was over. It was his Aunt May and he almost wept as he clutched the phone while Ned held him up. She was alright, she was safe.

He had to go with Ned’s parents, since the hospital she worked on was swamped with injured and wouldn’t be able to come get him. His uncle had gone to go help where he could, several officers dispatched to the affected areas.

The ten year old lay in the sleeping bag that night on Ned’s bedroom floor, staring up at the star stickers on his ceiling that were arranged like Andromeda and Orion constellation. Ned liked stars almost as much as coding, since he said that they were alike. Peter guessed they were in a way, but he also knew people were foolish and believed many things about the stars that had nothing to do with reality and science.

The memory of those creatures kept him from closing his eyes, wondering what they could have been. The teachers had called them monsters, but it couldn’t be as clean-cut as that. There had been a wormhole of some sort, and knew that theoretically blackholes and such could lead to other parts of the vast universe. There were some scientists that believed there was other life besides them somewhere in the universe. Peter, with his analytical and scientific mind had thought it a ridiculous claim; crazy and in no way possible.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.

Maybe those things had been aliens and maybe they hadn’t been, and the only way to discover was to study one of them. However, it was doubtful he’d ever be able to get close, since most of Manhattan was closed off due to structural damage and cleanup of the alien (monster, whatever) remains.

He’d heard some of the older teachers saying that New York hadn’t seen such disaster and destruction since the twin tower attack on September 11th. Peter didn’t know anything about that, since he’d been a month old when it had happened.

There was much speculation already, of people on the news as they interviewed people affected by the attack. A lot of them blamed Iron Man and company, since the wormhole had appeared above Stark Tower and they believed he had something to do with it. Peter was too smart to believe such spiel.

Also, he was a not only a fan of Iron Man and his brave and amazing feats, but he was also a fan of Tony Stark. Even if they were the same person, he didn’t think so. Iron Man was a superhero that punched and blasted the bad guys with his repulsor blasts in his high-tech suit. Tony Stark was a graduate of MIT, had several doctorates, and had designed his first portable arc reactor in a cave in Afghanistan. Iron Man and Tony Stark were the same person, but different at the same time.

Tony Stark was everything Peter tried to aspire to, and more. The man was also the brainchild of almost every new design that Stark Industries produced; from phones, to tablets, to state-of-the-art devices that detected poisons or contamination in water filtration systems. He was a smart man, and more importantly, a smart businessman. And a smart businessman didn’t open a wormhole that spewed an army that destroyed a large part of Manhattan and his own tower, days after taking it off the power grid and running on the reactor located on its roof.

Then again, people didn’t see this. They only saw someone to blame, a scapegoat. And Peter was more enamored of the man when instead of rising to their accusations, instead cooperated from the government to start damage control. That he was funding most of it didn’t occur to some people (even when it was public record), and only saw the contracts as Tony Stark trying to cash in on the destruction he and his band of ‘superhero friends’ had created.

As stated (in not so many words), people were ignorant and petty, and spiteful.

It was well past midnight when Peter sighed, rolled over and pulled his headphones over his ears. They were what some people would call ‘retro’, but they were really all he could afford. That and a first generation iPod that had a slightly cracked screen, but still served its purpose as the music lulled his thoughts and he was finally finally able to find sleep.

_2015_

It isn’t until the incident in Sokovia that really set a fire under his butt to start making what had only been a random thought process since he saw the shaky video of the Chitauri attack Manhattan. The plans had been in his mind for months, for years as he mentally built the robot, destroyed it and rebuilt it again and again. It was relatively easy once he actually started, his middle school classmates watching in awe as the robot slowly came to life. He had even forgone the class work to do this, and the teacher was much too eager to see the result from the mini-genius to stop and insist he do the work. They all knew the intellect of one Peter Parker and that he could do the coursework in his sleep if he felt so inclined. The only reason he hadn’t been bumped up several grades (they were pretty sure he should already be in MIT) was because his aunt insisted that she wanted Peter to have a normal middle school/high school experience.

When the robot was finished, standing a good foot taller than Peter himself (to be fair, he was thirteen and barely 5’0), it was ready to be tested. He got the building plans of the school and photos of a particular damaged areas before it was damaged and fed it into the computer. The staff and most of the student population migrated to the demonstration, and were left utter speechless as the robot repaired the damage almost like it hadn’t ever been damaged. The damage itself wasn’t too big, since it was a large chuck of concrete having been knocked off when the riding mower lost control and slammed into the wall. Thus it took less than thirty minutes, and all it needed afterwards was a fresh coat of paint which the robot wasn’t programmed to do.

His design made the New York Post, and while it wasn’t front page news (since the Sokovia incident was still very much at the forefront of most newspapers), it was enough for him to get noticed.

Oscorp came calling first in the form of a representative from the R&D department to offer him an internship that would give him experience, but also pay for his schooling until he graduated from MIT. He didn’t like Oscorp, and it had nothing to do with Harry Osborn (he went to their school but he wasn’t friends with him or anything). It was the fact that it was known for allegations of experiments on animals, and more sinister, on human test subjects. Of course, it could never be proven, and his Uncle and Aunt encouraged him to at least take a tour of the labs. So, Peter went.

 

“Ow!” he hissed, hand snapping up to the back of his neck as he felt the pinch on his skin. The lady, Dr. Rosenberg (he always giggled to himself about her surname, since she seemed musically challenged which he thankfully wasn’t) glanced at him curiously and with concern. Peter waved her off. “Oh, it’s nothing... probably just a pinched nerve.” She nodded after a moment and continued on through the lab as Peter’s eyes darted back and forth, checking the lab doors they passed. One was ajar and he thought he caught sight of glass tanks, like the kind that held fish... or some other kind of small animal or creature. Ah, nope.

“So, what do you think, Mr. Parker?” Dr. Rosenberg asked him at the end of the trip as they moved across the lobby toward the front door when Peter could see his Aunt waiting for him. They hadn’t let her join him on the tour, which was suspicious enough.

Peter took her hand when she offered it. “No thanks, Dr. lady,” he said, and smiled brightly before turning and walking away without a look back at her stunned face. His aunt stepped forward to meet him, eyes moving over him to make sure he was alright. “Let’s go home,” he said, and she smiled and led him to the old beat-up Ford Angelina, which was double-parked. Luckily, they got there before his Aunt could get another ticket, since she hadn’t been able to pay the last two and didn’t need another one.

Later that night, he was sicker than he’d ever been as his body burned with a raging fever and collapsed in a dead faint. His Aunt stayed at his side for two days, moping his forehead of the sweat that drenched his forehead and his whole body as it shook violently. On the third morning, he woke up alone, shaky and pale but better than he had ever felt. He was glad he was alone, since that way he didn’t have to explain to his Aunt and Uncle why he suddenly had a six-pack... and how exactly he’d managed to break his metal bed frame. Peter told them it was because the metal was old and rusted. They accepted and they bought him a twin bed (because that’s all they could afford at the moment).

When a woman in a light blue business jacket along with a pencil skirt and high heels came to their door, it was when Peter had been sick, so May was less than friendly.

“Good morning, Mrs. Parker, I’m here on behalf-“

“I know who you’re here on behalf off, and he already told you people he’s not interested,” she snapped.

The woman seemed taken aback at the fierce response, and also looked a bit confused. “I think you might be confused-”

May held up a hand and she cut herself off. “Don’t patronize me, lady. My kid is sick and I haven’t slept in twenty-four hours. He isn’t interested, and you can tell your boss that. In fact, if he’s so interested in Peter, then tell Osborn to stop sending representatives and come down here and offer him the internship himself. Good day.” Then she slammed the door in the woman’s face as she opened her mouth to say something else.

A day after Peter Parker recovered from being sick, he went back to school. He came home to find one Tony Stark sitting in the living room with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. “W-what... what are you doing here?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

Tony turned his charismatic smile on the thirteen year old. “Well, I couldn’t very well let Norman Osborn steal you away, now, could I? Sit down, kid. Let’s talk about your future.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future looks so bright for Peter...

**Chapter Two**

_Lay down next to me_  
_Don't listen when I scream_  
_Bury your doubts and fall asleep..._

_Let the bed sheet_  
_Soak up my tears_  
_And watch the only way out disappear_  
_Don't tell me why_  
_Kiss me goodbye..._

_Goodbye..._

-Goodbye (with Soap & Skin), Apparat  
\----

Peter breathed in shakily as he tried to calm down, but it wasn’t really working out. He swallowed as he turned with his hands behind his back, pressing his body back and then slowly, so slowly pulled his hands away. They didn’t give way for a moment, before suddenly releasing with a whisper like long grass against the side of a house. He looked down from where he was sitting... in the corner of his ceiling!

_‘Oh shit... oh Fuck!’_ He was also, maybe freaking out a bit... okay, more than a little bit. He didn’t even realize he was doing it, having been dreaming more vividly than he had ever done, of fireworks and monsters, and droids that lifted their metal hands and then the roar of the plane as it rushed without stopping toward the ground.

He must have jumped, or made some kind of movement, because next thing he knew he was hanging from the wall close to the ceiling as his heart threatened to beat straight out of his chest.

_’What the actual fuck?!’_

Peter’s head snapped up as he heard May call out, her footsteps in the hall outside his room before she knocked. “Peter, are you up?”

The doorknob turned and he freaked out even more as he flailed, not knowing how to get down. “Wait, May-!” He suddenly felt himself detach from the wall and crash in a heap on the bed as it groaned from the sudden weight of his falling body.

The door opened in that moment, and May paused. “What are you doing?” she asked in a slightly amused voice. He groaned in response and she chuckled. “Get out of that bed and start getting ready. Breakfast is in fifteen.”

Peter resisted the urge to make another distressed noise, since his stomach felt all twisted up over what had just happened. It was just one more thing to add to the freaky stuff that had thus far happened to him. He was just about done with everything.

See, Peter didn’t actually want to be Iron Man. He had these powers, knew it was Oscorp’s fault (he may have called the FBI and given them an anonymous tip from a payphone from Brooklyn one morning after the tour while on his way to school), and whatever illegal testing they were doing. Even so, despite this, he didn’t want to be Iron Man. He wanted to be Tony Stark.

The teenager remembered that wormhole vividly, obviously still had nightmares about it. He remembered how scared he’d been that day and thinking what would have happened if the Chitauri had made it out of Manhattan, to Queens.

He remembered seeing the news coverage as the Mandarin destroyed Tony Stark’s Malibu house with the man still inside. And he thought of his parents, whom he barely remembered anymore and how they’d boarded a plane and never returned. Now, all he had left were Ben and May, and he didn’t want to lose them.

So, despite the super-strength (he kept accidentally breaking stuff), his enchased hearing and eyesight (he could hear people in the next block and he had to pretend he still needed glasses), and his now perfect physical condition (oh boy, was he glad the asthma was gone), he didn’t want to be a superhero; Iron Man. Peter wanted to be more like Tony Stark, genius and philanthropist (not necessarily a billionaire and definitely not a playboy).

Peter shuddered as he pulled off his pajamas and pulled on a pair of jeans and his favorite graphic tee, the periodic symbol for iron and the word ‘Man’ next to it. He didn’t even need a jacket, since it was almost summer vacation and the days were starting to get uncomfortably hot.

Later today, after school was let out, Mr. Stark had arranged a tour of the labs the interns used. The senior intern would show him around, introduce him to the other interns. He had smirked when he said he’d look later at the expressions on their faces when they saw the new potential intern.

Peter hadn’t said he’d take the offer, but he was stalling for the simple fact that he wanted to see the labs first. By the widening smirk when he said he wanted a tour before decided, he was sure the older man already knew what his decision would be. He’d given him a heated glare, but he wasn’t sure it was very affective when all he did was give a chuckle. The term _surly puppy_ seemed to scream out at the man, he was sure. Damn baby face.

He rushed out of the school door, waving a hasty goodbye at Ned before he made for the Ford Angelina, opening the door and tossing in his bag before he slid in. May was driving while Ben rode shotgun. “Let’s go,” he enthused, wide grin on his face that made his uncle reach back and ruffle his hair. “Ack! Don’t, Ben!” he yelped as he hastily started to straighten his hair. He’d gelled it back with something, likely hairgel gotten from somewhere else, probably one of his classmates.

It was half an hour later when they pulled up to the building, and Ben was amused as he glanced back and saw the kid practically vibrating in his seat as he looked up at the tower. “Woah,” he whispered, his hands doing a spastic little dance in his lap that always happened when he got super excited and was trying to restrain himself. He seemed to be doing that a lot more and more lately, and while there seemed to be something bothering him, he hadn’t told either of them about it.

When they got to the entrance of the parking garage, May reached out and pressed the intercom. “Yes, may I help you?” a woman’s voice asked with a faint but recognizable Irish lilt to her voice.

“Yes, I’m May, and we’re here for a tour set up for us by Mr. Stark. We’re the Parkers,” May told the woman on the intercom, thinking she was speaking with an actual person.

“Voice identification required of the other two people inside the vehicle. State your names.”

Ben and Peter were a bit confused, but the older man leaned across the seat first. “Uh, I’m Ben Parker.”

“Identity confirmed,” the woman stated.

Peter scooted over so he was behind May, tossing his backpack to the seat he’d just been in and pressed his face between her seat and the side of the car. “Hi! I’m Peter.... Parker!” he squeaked, face heating up again when his voice cracked. It kept doing that and wished it stopped soon, but it seemed to happen whenever he got overly excited.

“Identity confirmed,” the woman’s voice spoke again and Peter thought there was amusement in her voice and wanted to curl up in a ball and die. He was sure this woman was up in the security office or whatever and was laughing at him. “Please proceed to parking space 17-A,” she instructed and the reinforced door lifted up to allow them entry.

May drove inside and was surprised that this particular parking spot appeared to be reserved for ‘Special Guests’ as the sign in front of the parking spot indicated. She shifted the car into Park and turned it off, taking her seatbelt and turning in her seat to look at Peter.

“Ready?” May asked as Ben also turned to look at Peter as he squirmed in the backseat. He gave a smile and nodded, opening the door slowly before he slipped out, and there was a little happy skip in his steps as they left the parking garage and reached the lobby via the elevator that only seemed to go there. They weren’t sure since there were no buttons inside the elevator itself, and it had just started to move when all three of them had stepped inside.

After their identities were confirmed, the front desk secretary looking at Peter no small amount of incredulity, they were given their temporary passes that would give them access to the specific parts of the building. Then they were told to take a seat while she contacted the intern that would be giving them their tour. It was ten minutes later that a stocky young man came toward them, with sandy colored hair, baby blue eyes and a nice-looking smile.

“Hello, you must be the Parkers,” he greeted warmly, trying and failing to hide his surprise when he was close enough to see Peter’s face. “My name is Jacob Martin, and I’m going to be your tour guide.” Peter admired how he continued on without missing a beat. Of course, working in a place like Stark Industries (SI), he had probably seen his fair share of incredible things. A baby-faced potential intern was probably nothing too shocking compared to that.

“Now, you’re going to scan your badges here and pass through the scanner,” he instructed. Then he proceeded to demonstrate.

“Jacob Nathan Martin, Intern level 5, finger print identification required,” said the same female Irish voice that let them into the building.

Jacob pressed his hand to the scanner.

“Identity Confirmed. Welcome, Mr. Martin.”

Peter looked up, trying to find the security camera like the one that had been outside of the parking garage outside. “How can she see us?” he asked curiously.

“Because FRIDAY is installed throughout the whole building except the bathrooms and the testing rooms. She’s and AI, not a real person.”

“Dude, that’s rude,” Peter mumbled. When Jacob gave him a questioning look, he shrugged. “Saying she’s not a real person...” He tottered over to the scanner as he left Jacob with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Hi, Ms. FRIDAY,” he said as he scanned his temp badge.

“Peter Benjamin Parker.... Hello, Mr. Parker,” FRIDAY spoke, her voice sounding as gentle as an AI could be.

“Peter,” he said, looking up as if he were talking with the AI.

“Hello, Peter,” she corrected as the aforementioned teen beamed happily.

May and Ben passed through and then Jacob started their tour.

 

It was almost half an hour later, and Peter literally felt like a kid in a toy store. Peter wanted to go and use the equipment to building something, and there were many many plans, calculations and ideas inside his vast mind space. He wanted to build high-tech goggles that were able to detect an imminent chemical explosion, and it would be able to give instructions on how to quickly counter it. He was sure that Tony Stark might already have glasses like that, which is the reason was always seen with glasses on his face. There were more thinks that he also wanted to build, including-

He snapped out of his euphoric trance as a gentle hand was laid on his shoulder, effectively slowing his thoughts so he realized he actually taken a few steps toward the lab equipment and had been mumbling complex equations. “Come back,” Ben said quietly but firmly, and he turned to look at him. He smiled at Peter to show he wasn’t angry at him, since he knew that at times his mind was racing so fast that his body just acted.

“Well, someone is enthusiastic to get started,” Jacob said with a grin, pushing past the awkwardness that usually accompanied such episodes, and Peter was so grateful for it. Other people that weren’t on his level intellectually usually looked at him strangely when he did this. Ned was the same way, cracking a joke to get attention away from Peter.

Peter turned back to the lab and the other interns inside that were trying not to make it too obvious that they were trying to get a look at Peter. There was a lot of high-tech stuff in front of them, and when they had glimpsed the new potential intern, did their wide-eyed thing, they went back to work. Peter was glad that his aunt and uncle had been allowed to accompany him on the tour, even if they had been made to sign NDAs due to the potentially sensitive material they would see in the labs.

The teen was glad they hadn’t done that when he took that tour of Oscorp (not that he could sign it, being a minor without his guardian on the tour), and thus he could report them without fear of legal action against him if he was found out. Peter didn’t have any worries about SI, since they had stopped weapon’s manufacturing a long time ago.

“So, what do you think, Peter?” Jacob asked the younger male. He’d explained on the tour that he was on his last year at ESU and would immediately start working for SI when he graduated.

The adolescent couldn’t help beaming up at the taller man (he was 5’5). “I think this is awesome!” Peter squeaked, cheeks reddening up almost instantly. He’d been doing good thus far to keep his voice from cracking, and groaned internally as he saw the amused glint in the man’s eyes.

Jacob chuckled, but it wasn’t in a cruel way. He’d been shocked when he’d seen Peter Parker and new potential intern; a middle schooler! Then he’d started the tour and talked to him, and learned about why exactly he’d caught Tony Stark’s attention. He had designed a robot that could repair buildings using destroyed rubble, and also a cement glue that was better than anything on the market today. And he’d done that when he was just barely twelve! Peter clearly had genius-level intelligence, and it now made sense why he was being offered an internship there (even if it was being called a scholarship).

“A-and I think I’m gonna really like working... uh, interning here,” he said with a nervous giggle.

Jacob gave him a fond look and reached out to ruffle his hair as Peter squawked indignantly. “I look forward to working with you, kid,” he told him honestly. He smiled when Peter grumbled and tried to get his hair back under control. Jacob was sure he’d chosen to have it slicked back to make him look older, and was amused as he saw a bit of curls sticking out and couldn’t help thinking he looked adorable. The boy reminded him of his own kid brother, who was fourteen.

The intern looked at the two adults that had accompanied him, seeing that they were looking no less astonished than their nephew. “Did you have any questions?” When they shook their heads left and right, he was glad since that meant that he had covered everything that might have concerned them about the internship here. Jacob was sure that with Peter being so young they had some concerns, and he was glad that he had made them feel secure enough that it didn’t warrant anymore questions.

“Great,” he said as he led them out of the labs and to the elevator. “To the cafeteria, FRIDAY.” A meal had been added as part of the tour, and he was sure they were hungry, or at least Peter was since he knew all about ravenous teenage appetites from his younger sibling. When the door opened, he remembered Peter’s words and smiled. “Thank you, FRIDAY.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Martin,” the AI responded.

Peter waved up at the corner of the elevator where he’s finally managed to see one of the tiny cameras that he was sure were located around the state-of-the-art building. “Yeah, thanks,” he said enthusiastically. He giggled as the lights blinked in what might have been the equivalent of a wink, and then hurried after the other three.

Ben got a hotdog meal, and May got a chicken strip meal. Peter got two hamburgers, two hotdogs, a large order of fries and a large drink. Jacob was sure the meal ticket wouldn’t cover and was about to tell him that when he swiped the card and it indicated that he didn’t owe anything.

Huh, he thought in confusion, glancing up toward the ceiling with suspicious amusement before he went to get his own meal. It seemed FRIDAY had taken a liking for the boy, but couldn’t really blame her. Jacob had taken a liking to the boy as well. He wasn’t even surprised when Peter finished everything on his tray.

“Thanks for the tour,” Peter said, shaking his hand enthusiastically after his aunt and uncle had done so. “Bye, Ms. FRIDAY!”

The room which was always unusually cold seemed to warm up for a moment. “Goodbye, Peter,” FRIDAY said with a gentle tone again, “I will see you soon.” Peter grinned happily, nodded and hurried after his guardians.

Later that night, Peter lay awake and thought about the unbelievable afternoon he’d had. He was glad that it was Friday and didn’t need to get up early tomorrow, since he was sure he wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night. His mind wouldn’t shut down as he thought of the last week.

The logistics of the internship had been discussed with the philanthropist when he’d visited their apartment two days ago. And the main topic of concern was Peter’s age. Technically, interns weren’t usually paid and they were also typically already in college. So, instead of an internship, it would be a scholarship that would pay for his schooling, which included the college of his choice (MIT was looking like a very definite choice, but it had nothing to do with it being Tony’s alma matar).

“Will... I get to work w-with you, sir... uh, Mr. Stark, sir,” he’d asked shyly, but he was sure the man could see his excitement in his brown eyes. The man actually smiled, and not the amused smirk he had worn when Peter had first laid eyes on him, but a genuine smile at his enthusiasm.

“Well, Mr. Parker, it’s a definite possibility,” he told him.

Peter grinned in his dark room and grabbed his phone from the nightstand where it was charging.

**Me:** _Dude, you won’t believe how amazing those labs are!_

**Ned-bro:** _Tell! Me! Everything!_

**Me:** _Sorry, no can do. Had to sign NDAs before the tour._

_**Ned-bro:** _I hate you... 😒__

__**Me:** _Shut up, you love me 😬__ _

___**Ned-bro:** _Yeah, I do 🙄__ _ _

Peter giggled to himself and started to tell him that he’d accepted the ‘internship’ and all the ideas and plans he had, and how he couldn’t wait to get started. He was glad his aunt and uncle had gotten him a better phone with an actual screen, even if it was used and two years old. At least he could get on the internet even if it took so freaking long.

It would be summer in two weeks and he would get to spend all his spare time at the labs. He’d also talked to Mr. Delmar and he had agreed to let him stock the shelves on the weekend for a bit of spending money. He couldn’t pay him as an employee because he was still too young to work, so he’d be paying him under the table. His aunt and uncle knew and let him do it, as long as he didn’t think he would use that for anything but his own things. Peter planned on using it to buy a new phone, and definitely the LEGO AT-DP which had almost 500 pieces. It had come out in January, but that didn’t mean the price had gone down and with taxes it was almost fifty-four US dollars!

He couldn’t wait for summer to start. His new freaky powers aside, he was sure this summer was going to be the best ever!

\----

“No... no!” Peter sobbed, shaking hands pressing into the wound at Ben’s stomach even as blood continued to gush out past his fingers. There was so much blood, and it was quickly staining his hands almost all the way past his wrists. “H... hang on, Uncle Ben... hang on!”

He looked behind him frantically, but he didn’t see anyone. “Help! Somebody, help me!” Peter screamed, his voice edging his way into hysteria. He turned back and pressed harder on the wound, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. There was so much blood.

Peter had frozen the moment he’d seen the gun, and for once his brilliant mind had gone blank with terror. He had wanted their wallets, and they had been prepared to give them to the man. Ben had slowly withdrawn his and Peter had scrambled to do the same, and the man had handed his over first. Then he’d opened Ben’s wallet, seen the badge and freaked out when he realized Ben was a police officer.

Next thing Peter knew, there had been an explosion louder than the fireworks Peter loved so much, and Ben had grunted in pain. Peter had heard someone scream, like the howl of an injured animal as Ben collapsed, and it took Peter a moment to realize it was coming from him.

He could feel his tears running freely down his face, sobs tearing past his lips and unable to stop them. “HELP!” He could hear shouting as someone saw them at last, a couple that had been passing by and heard them calling 911 and Peter was so grateful even if he still couldn’t catch a breath past his crying to tell them so.

“Peter,” Ben groaned, face pale under the light of the street lamps. He lifted a shaking hand to the teenager’s face to caress his cheek and smearing it with blood at the same time. “Y...you gotta take care of your aunt... it-it’s hard, I know,” he choked. “But... you’re so smart... an’ so strong, but... with it, comes... great responsibility.”

Peter nodded, unable to do more, glancing back only a moment when he heard the siren of the approaching ambulance. “Don’t worry, Ben... the ambulance is close, don’t worry,” he said as he looked back to his uncle. He froze when he saw that his eyes were closed. “U-uncle Ben?” His shaking hands were still pressing down on the wound, covered in his uncle’s blood. Peter had only looked away for a moment! “BEN?!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finds a purpose, an outlet for his grief...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excuse my poor art skills lol

**Chapter Three**

_Drowning in the daylight_  
Drowning in the hindsight  
_Drowning_ _when_ _you're_ _breathing_  
_Can't_ _help_ _when_ _you_ _are_ _sinking_...

_I didn't mean to cause so much harm  
Your shattered frame will never be the same..._

_It's difficult to say his name even out of context  
The letters stick together like pain.._

_Kill me with every could have been  
By picking the fights that you can't win..._

_By picking the fights that leave you torn open..._

_It's never enough, never enough  
You were never enough, it's never enough..._

-Mercy Kill, Social Repose

\----

Tony was bored. Well, it wasn’t to say that the meeting itself was boring, because it had to do with the events of Sokovia and the destruction that had happened there. He was responsible, he knew he was, but he hadn’t meant for it to happen. He didn’t just think, ‘let me make an artificially intelligent robot that wants to wipe out all of humanity’.

There were talks of rules and laws that would and could be used to bring enhanced people in check. He thought it was ridiculous, since that also meant that the Avengers would be controlled by someone else, and he didn’t like the sound of that. when they started talking about registering enhanced individuals and having them wear identifiers, that’s where he put his foot down.

“That’s a nice idea, almost the way Hilter made Jewish people wear the Star of David to identify them. It’s refreshing how we’ve come full circle,” he said sarcastically. There were some that looked appropriately ashamed at the comparison, but there were more that didn’t even seem affected. This was turning into a nightmare.

When the meeting ended, he sighed as he entered his penthouse in Avenger’s tower, ripping off the tie and tossing it down onto the bed. “Fucking hypocrites, and they dare call enhanced people unnatural,” he snapped, ripping off his shirt and not caring that it was a thousand dollar suit or that a few buttons had ripped off. He needed to let off some steam, and after changing into comfortable jeans and an old Queens shirt, he got into the elevator to go down to the lab.

“Sir, there are a few videos waiting for your perusal,” FRIDAY stated as the doors opened onto the floor that held his personal labs, which no one could access.

“What videos?” he asked, voice annoyed that he was stopped from relieving his stress by taking apart something and then putting it back together. Maybe he’d get to work on his new portable Iron Man gauntlet that could be hidden in his watch. He decided that he’d do just that, since he’d already completed the Mark 46, and was well on his way with the nano-tech he was having a bit of trouble perfecting.

“The ones of Peter Parker’s tour of Stark Industries,” FRIDAY indicated, a holo screen appearing with a series of videos.

This got his attention, putting down the watch that would soon be a portable gauntlet. “Why didn’t you say so. Play them, Fri,” he said, settling on his chair as he remembered the first meeting with the teenager.

 _’Will... I get to work w-with you, sir... uh, Mr. Stark, sir?’_ His big brown eyes had shone with excitement despite the shy, slightly awkward question. The man who had never wanted children, and thought that kids were annoying needy things he wanted to stay far away from, had to admit that the kid was adorable. Peter was enthusiastic and there was real hero-worship in his eyes when he looked at Tony, and at the time he hadn’t really known what to do with that. Now, with everything that was happening, it made him feel more like a hero that he had felt in a long time.

He watched the video of the tour from the moment the car had pulled up to the building, a beat-up Ford Angelina, and chuckled as he heard him squeak his name from the back-seat, almost forgetting his last name. Then he grinned when he chastised the intern and called him rude for saying FRIDAY wasn’t a real person. “Look at their faces,” he practically giggled, looking as the interns stared after the little tour and especially as they caught sight of Peter.

By the time he reached the video of Peter waving at the camera in the elevator, he had forgotten all about his stress and anger of the meeting. “Damn, the kid can eat,” he said, shaking his head and absently adding a double meal ticket for when he’d start his internship the week after school ended. The kid was too damn skinny.

He sat back and sighed as he flicked his wrist to dismiss the holoscreen. “So, what do you think, Fri?” Tony asked the AI as he went back to tinkering with the portable gauntlet, which would be just the start of his nano-tech suit. He could only use it on a small scale at the moment, but soon he would be able to have a whole suit inside a portable housing unit and call on it at a moment’s notice.

“He is a very... interesting person,” FRIDAY said. “I like him.”

Tony hummed and nodded. “Yeah, he seems like a good kid,” he said, frowning as he brought the magnifying glass closer so he could tweak a part of the watch. “He’s smart as a whip, too,” he mumbled. He thought back to the boy as he left the building, smile wide and brilliant, and brown eyes big behind his glasses. “Let’s keep an eye on him, Fri.“

Rather than ask the reason for this, the AI gave an affirmative. “Will do, boss.”

\- - - -

Peter stared at the floor, sitting in the uncomfortable chair of the waiting room while the hustle and bustle of the police station surrounded him. His hands were still covered in dried blood, having flinched away from anyone that tried to touch or even speak to him. They recognized the victim as a fellow officer, since Ben had been well-liked in his precinct and any that worked with him. They knew who to call, and it was a good thing since they hadn’t been able to get anything out of the practically comatose teenager. They all gave him pitying looks that he didn’t see.

He felt like he’d been there forever before the door slammed open and May rushed in. “Peter,” she gasped, seeing his bloody hands and shirt, the smear of blood still on his face. “Oh my God!”

He lifted his face to look at her. “Aunt May?” he whimpered. Then she was in the seat next to him, arms wrapped around him and the dam broke as his breath hitched in a sob. She held him tighter as he gripped her back, sobbing into her shoulder as the horror of the last hour came crashing down on his young mind. Peter would never be the same after this.

\- - - -

It had been almost two weeks since he’d been to SI for his internship, and a week and a half since Ben’s funeral. He’d been sent off as the hero cop he was, and the man that had murdered him was still out there despite the fact that Peter had given them the best description he could. Instead of going to the internship, as he told May, he had been going out to look for him.

Peter walked along the streets of Queens, and especially the spot where Ben had been gunned down. He barely ate, but that was alright. The teen didn’t need food, and besides, he had been eating too much lately and with Ben gone it was now May paying their bills. It was true that the scholarship would pay for his schooling and anything from his text books to school supplies. However, that didn’t mean much when May had to pay the rent, water, the light, the gas bill, and food. Also, Peter had shot up another few inches and was now 5’3 and that meant new pants. So, he ate less than he could get away with, telling May that he ate at SI.

It was during one of these long searches that he came upon a man mugging an old lady. He snatched her purse and shoved her down as she cried out, and Peter saw red.

“Aaah!” he yelled as he tackled the mugger, his superior strength aiding him as they both went tumbling in a tangle of arms and legs. He was able to gain the upper hand, straddling his middle and lifted his hand and punched him. He had no control in that moment, so after a few punches the man’s nose broke and gushed blood all over his face.

He paused as he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt, and his head whipped back to look but relaxed when he saw it was just the little old lady. “It’s alright, son,” she said, taking his arm and he let her pull him away. He hadn’t realized when he straddled the man so he couldn’t get away as he had punched him.

Peter let her lead him away from the barely conscious mugger, taking up her dropped purse and sitting him down on a empty crate that creaked but held under his weight. She took out a packet of wipes and with a tenderness that brought tears to his eye, started to wipe the mugger’s blood from his hands.

“You were very brave, young man,” she said in a soft voice, wizened face set in a kind expression. “But you mustn’t stoop to their level... you shouldn’t hurt anyone, even when they deserve it. There, all clean.” She tossed the soiled wipes into the trash can next to them.

Peter nodded, tears spilling down his face and she reached out and gave him a hug. He bit back a sob and returned it, trying not to accidentally crush her and wondering what the hell he was doing. The sound of sirens made him jerk out of her hold, starting to panic. She laid a hand on his face, much like the way Ben had done as he had laid dying in an alleyway much like this one.

“Go, I’ll tell them I didn’t see your face. Only a man in red and blue clothes.” He looked down and saw that he did indeed have a red shirt and bright blue jeans. She gave him a gentle push, Peter gave her a wan smile and nodded. He stood and rush off to the end of the alleyway, and the police cruiser pulled up as he rounded the corner. It was getting dark, so no one witnessed as he scaled the wall and then jumped onto the next building before jogging across the roof and the next one until he reached block, where he climbed back down.

Peter was shaking when he got home, having taken the train and the sun had set twenty minutes ago. His aunt was waiting for him. “Peter, where the hell have you been? They called from SI and said you haven’t been there in days!”

She took one look at his face and she seemed to know, but she didn’t, not really. “Oh baby, come here.” She held her arms open and it was so easy to melt into them. “He... he wouldn’t want to see you like this, Peter,” she whispered, her voice shaking. She was suffering as much as he was, probably more and Peter felt guilty he was doing this to her. He shouldn’t become a burden on her when she now had to work to support them without Ben’s help, the man she loved and whom she had also lost.

“I’m sorry, May... I just... I miss... him,” he said, unable to even say Ben’s name.

She pulled him to the couch and he practically crawled into her lap as he had done when he was four and he would wake up from a nightmare. May didn’t say anything about how much heavier he was from that four year old, she simple nuzzled the top of his curly head, pressing a quick kiss to it. They cuddled on the lumpy couch for a long time. “Are you going to go back to the internship? I told them we’d had a death in the family and they said for you to take all the time you needed.” She had started to run her hand through his curls, letting him take his time to answer.

“Y-yeah, I think I will, just... not this week, but Monday,” he said. Besides, he had decided something. Before, when he had gotten these powers, he had not wanted to use them. He didn’t want to be a superhero, and had just wanted to be an inventor, had wanted to be like Tony Stark. Now, after he had saved that woman in that alley, like he could have done for Ben if he hadn’t been so damn scared, he knew what he had to do. He would be Iron Man.

If he could stop someone else losing someone like they had, gunned down in an alleyway for a few measly dollars, then maybe it would abate this guilt a bit. The money he had saved up from his weekend job was so he could buy a new phone, upgrade from his crappy iPhone 5 that was cracked now, looking at it after he went to his room. It must have happened in the fight.

Now, he would use it to get something that would be able to hide who he was. A mask, something to help since at times there was too much input and daily he was having to deal with constant headaches. The glasses he pretended he needed helped a bit, but they were clear lenses so not by much.

He would tell his aunt that he was using his work money to buy contact lenses and stop using them. Maybe use some goggles or something, to help him focus.

He got his notebook out and started to design his suit, a rough sketch of what he might be able to afford. Peter made a face when he finished, having tried coloring it in and that had turned out worse than he had thought it would. He’d even managed to completely go outside the lines... everywhere, and the spider he’d drawn on the front of suit (since it was a spider that had bitten him, possibly radioactive, he wasn’t sure) didn’t even look like a spider!

 

“Eh, no wonder I’m failing art class,” he grumbled, tossing the notebook on his bed. He’d get started tomorrow and see how things turned out. He sighed, stripped off his clothes and pulled on his Iron Man pajama pants and a graphic t-shirt that said, ‘Technically, the glass is always full!’ And it had a picture of a glass filled half-way with water, and it indicated that the other half was full of air. He’d grinned when he’d seen it and had to get it, because it was so true.

He had the perfect shirt for Mr. Stark, but they weren’t close or anything so there was no plausible way for him to gift it to him without being weird. Peter knew he liked AC/DC, and he was Iron Man. The shirt said Heavy metals, and then it was the scientific symbols of Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), and Lead (Pb), and they were all sporting dyed purple, neon green, and sky blue hair respectively. He always found it funny, because he imagined Mr. Stark with neon green hair.

The teenager sighed and plopped down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling and the smear at the corner of the ceiling that he’d made when he’d first stuck to the wall. Many things had changed since then, and he wished he could go back and do things different. He would decide to use his powers to help people right after he got them, and maybe he could have saved his uncle... maybe. Or maybe he needed to stop wondering in what ifs and just do as much good as he could, now.

He rolled over, grabbed his headphones and turned on his music. ‘You’ by Us Baby Bear Bones was half-way finished when his eyes grew heavy, and by the time ‘Bernadette’ started, Chris Corner’s voice lulled him all the way to sleep.

He dreamed of Ben again, and it would surely be many more nights filled with the terrible memories.

\- - - -

Peter didn’t even have to lie to May on where he was going, since she was working so much that most of the time she slept a few scant hours in the break room beds meant mostly for residents, and then she was back to work another shift. She’d had to leave her nursing classes, since she was only an assistant and the classes would make her an LVN. It would also pay more, but not necessarily less hours. Peter wished he could help her, but even if the internship would have been a paid one, he was much too young to be paid anyways.

He’d bought light blue sweatpants and sweater, and a sleeveless red hoodie which he’d drawn a spider with Sharpie that looked decidedly better than what he’d drawn on his notebook. He’d found a red skin-tight ski mask, and he’d managed to fit a pair of goggles through the eyeholes that he’d fitted with a white mesh. Anyone would have had trouble seeing through them, but they helped him a lot, to keep dirt out of his eyes and also to tame his enhanced sight as well. He’d found these cool red leather fingerless gloves that came with these red wristbands that he didn’t really need, but saved them for later just in case. The red thigh length socks seemed a bit silly, but it went well with the hoodie and the red shoes had been a find since they reminded him a bit of crocs, which were cool even if he’d never say it out loud.

He’d saved the old lady on Wednesday and it was now Friday, and the sun had just gone down and he was ready. Peter was nervous as hell, but he needed to do this. His analytical mind was calculating where there would be the most crime in Queens, since he’d decided to stick to there for the moment. He climbed out of his window onto the fire escape, and the street lamps were out in that part of the street, so no one would see him.

He decided that running across the rooftops was better than being seeing on the ground and wondered if he should invent a faster way to get around. He just didn’t know what. While it would be cool to fly like Iron Man, he hadn’t heard of a flying spider, and besides, where would be even get the necessary materials to make rocket boots? So, no flying. Bummer.

Then he remembered that spider’s used their webs to swing, and he wondered if he could do that as well. Peter could admit that the idea of swinging from one building to the next terrified him. What if he missed and broke his face?

Well, he’d have to learn to get over being uncomfortable over heights if this is what he wanted to do. Maybe he’d get off it by climbing the tallest tower in the city. He could climb the Avenger’s Tower, but he didn’t want to get any of the Avengers attention at the moment. Especially since he interned there, and he didn’t want to jeopardize his scholarship. So, maybe the Empire State Building? Preferably during the night so he didn’t get himself arrested.

Peter shuddered as he imagined climbing that high, but for now put that out of his mind. He instead listened to what was happening around him, the ski mask muffling his hearing a bit, but not nearly enough. Maybe he could buy a police scanner and hook it up to some wireless earbuds. He’d been wanting to buy some for a while now, but had wanted to save enough to buy all of it at the same time, new phone, wireless earbuds and preferably an otter case in the event that he dropped it. The heavy duty case would surely protect it rather well, since despite his new agility, he found himself being a bit clumsy either way at times.

He was distracted from his thoughts as he heard a shout, and jumped in surprise before jogging toward the edge of the roof he was currently on. Peter looked down and saw three guys ganging up one other guy, taking turns beating on him. “Okay... okay, I can do this,” he muttered. He then took a running step and jumped, realized he hadn’t seen where he would land, flailed halfway down as he tried to keep from screaming and grunted as he landed on something, or rather, someone.

The person that had broken his fall groaned in pain, and Peter scrambled off him, saw that it was thankfully one of the ones that had been doing the assault, and not the victim. “Who the hell are you?” one asked of them asked at the same time another asked, “What the fuck are you wearing?”

Peter wondered what to say as he opened his mouth, and word vomit just came out. “Hey man, I think the odds aren’t really in this guys favor, so why don’t we all just back off and go home?” They stared at him incredulously, not quite sure what to make of him and his get-up.

The guy he’d fallen on staggered to his feet. “You damn freak, that hurt!” He lunged at him and that seemed to be their cue as he did the same thing.

 _‘Oh shit!’_ he panicked, moments before a feeling like goosebumps went through him and his body reacted instinctively, jumping away from the thug that swung at the back of his head. As he did, the guy accidentally punched the one that had tried to grab him from in front. The third guy swung again and he felt the same feeling as he ducked.

“Yikes, come on guys! Can’t we all just be friends?! We can all go get churros!” He ducked again from another hit, tripped the guy up so he stumbled and fell and squeaked as he side-stepped the next hit so the guy hit the wall as he howled in pain. When the third guy pulled a knife on him, he gasped and he was suddenly half-way up the wall. They all froze in shock as Peter stared at them from his higher position, and took the opportunity to kick away the knife from the man’s hand and then kicked him across the side of the head as well, making sure he only used a fraction of his strength.

The guy that hit the wall was cradling what was sure a fractured hand and the third guy scrambled up and fled. Peter jumped down, taking in a shuddering breath before going to their victim. “Hey, guy, are you alright?” he asked him, helping him to his feet.

“Y-yeah, thanks, um.. who are you?” he asked, squinting at the spider drawn on his hoodie, not quite able to make it out.

Peter cleared his throat, making sure to make his voice a bit deeper. “Hey, how’ya doin’? I’m Spider-Man,” he said, having decided the name just in that moment.” He waved in the direction of the two thugs. “Do ya mind callin’ the cops for me? I left my phone at home,” he said with a laugh. When he nodded, he took a running jump to attach to the wall and scrambled up quickly, not seeing as the victim stared after him once more in shock since he didn’t seem to be using any kind of rope. He also missed as the guy had fumbled for his phone, starting to record him when he was half-way up the wall. It was loaded onto his instagram and YouTube accounts within seconds. ‘Yo, dudes, this weird guy calling himself Spider-Man saved me! #GotJumped #SpiderMan #FreakyCrap’

The video went viral within a day, and #SpiderMan was trending just as quickly.

\- - - -

Tony groaned, glad to be back in New York. The team now had two new members, and thus Cap had wanted them all to train together. To get used to having the two newest members on there. Then they had all gone on separate, small missions together and paired separately from their usual partners so they could learn to work better than with just their usual partners.

While Rhodey wasn’t technically an Avenger, he was one of the people that Tony worked with best, with the exception of Steve of course.

Their first meeting had been anything but hostile, straying into dangerous territory where they’d been at each other’s throats. However, during the battle of Manhattan, they had worked seemlessly together, and hadn’t even needed instructions as they almost anticipated one another’s movements. Hell, Tony had even let the man give the orders on how they worked, and Tony had never liked having partners, and definitely not one that gave him commands.

Now, the tension was back, of course, but he couldn’t really blame Steve. He’d screwed up big time, and he couldn’t even tell them what his goal of Ultron had even been. It was this constant buzzing in the back of his head, this feeling since New York that something... something was coming. And they would be ill prepared for it when it came. Tony just couldn’t for the life of him, figure out what that was.

So, the been having a very poor month. Now, he was finally back in the city and he wanted to relax. He didn’t even want to tinker, just throw himself on the couch and watch a movie that would take his mind off everything having to do with Ultron, the consequences, and Sokovia... especially Sokovia.

It seemed FRIDAY had other plans.

“Boss, there are video files waiting for you... some are very urgent.”

Tony sighed loudly, loath to leave the couch now that he had gotten comfortable. “Just... play them on the big screen starting with the first one,” he said as he waved in the general direction of the big screen television. He’d already pulled off his tie, cuff links and jacket and tossed them somewhere behind him.

He smiled when he saw the video start of Peter walking into the building to start his first day of his internship. He lifted his head to grin brightly at the ceiling. “Morning, Ms FRIDAY!” he squeaked, cheeks already flushed but seeing as they reddened even more. Tony hide his amused smile behind his hand even if there was no one there to see it. He found it hilarious the way his voice cracked when he got overly enthusiastically.

Tony watched as he was made to get the other intern’s coffee and snubbed by some of the older ones. He frowned when that smile dropped from Peter’s features before he would smile again, nod and hurry to get their coffee or go speak to someone else. This persisted into the third day before Jacob Martin stepped in, asking for Peter‘s help with some calculations. The smile had gradually faded and his enthusiasm had all but gone by that third day, so Tony was glad for Jacob as he saw Peter brighten up and nod before he rushed over to the man’s desk.

He wasn’t sure if it was to give something for Peter to do, or distract him, but he had clearly not thought he would be able to do the college level calculations. “Oh, I see the problem,” he said, starting to erase part of an equation on the dry erase board Jacob used. He was a bit old-school at times, which wasn’t a problem since the young man was pretty smart. However, Peter was clearly on a whole other level. The teen re-wrote out the equation, using the changes and Jacob’s eyes widened.

The older male stepped up to the board and looked up at the calculations that would allow his new prototype fire alarm/sprinkler system. It would be able to detect what type of smoke was being produced, and program the sprinklers to use the appropriate flame retardant. Using water was not always the thing to use, since there were some chemicals that reacted violently when water was added to them. “T.. this... will work,” he muttered, dumbfounded.

The other interns had been pretending not to listen in, and while some were thoroughly impressed, there were some stubborn little shits and refused to admit that Peter could actually be that smart. Tony wanted to go down there and shake them senseless, but then reminded himself that this had happened almost a month ago. Well, he bet the kid set them right soon enough. God, he hated bullies.

He watched as over the next two weeks (eleven days, since the kid didn’t work the weekends) Peter proved why he deserved to be there, and all those skeptics turned into believers. Jacob especially and another female intern had taken him under their wings and taught him things he didn’t know about, but he caught on amazingly fast. Also, they told him jokes that made him throw his head back and laugh without restraint.

Tony found himself saving those particular videos. It was the end of June that had him worried. He scanned the video for that day, but there was no sign of Peter’s presence. “Where are you?” Then the new report saved by FRIDAY gave him his answer. It was news report of a police officer being gunned down June 27, just after dark. It was a Saturday, so that meant Peter hadn’t been to the lab.

“Fri...” he started, but it seemed his smart girl was way ahead of him and had already pulled up the reports on the shooting as well as the obituary. When he finished, even getting the police report in a not so ‘legal’ manner, he realized what he’d been dreading finding out.

Peter had been with his uncle when he’d been gunned down, had watched the man die. “Fri, where is he? Show me the videos of him from June 29 through July 9,” he told her.

“I’m sorry, boss, but there is no sign of Peter since June 26,” he told him, and if an AI could sound concerned... Well, she made a pretty good show of it, and Tony was right there with her.

He jumped to his feet and started to pace. “I... no, it’d be weird to show up, right? I mean.. he’s.. he’s in mourning, so it’s nothing to be worried about that he hasn’t returned.” Tony hadn’t even realized he’d started to pace, running his hands through his hair as he tousled it until he looked like a mad scientist, and the movie he had wanted to watch had all but been forgotten.

“Sir, there’s a phone call made Thursday you may be interested in,” his AI stated. She didn’t even ask for his permission to play it and started the recording.

“Stark Industries, how may I direct your call?” Jill, the front desk receptionist asked.

“Uh... hi, this is Peter... Parker?”

“How may I direct your call, Mr. Parker?”

“Oh, I’m... I’m an intern there, and I haven’t been going the last few days.”

“Failure to show up for internship for two days without notice is grounds for terminating an internship.”

Tony wanted to fire the brute of a woman immediately.

“Well.. t-that’s.. I just... my... my uncle... he died, and,” he choked, voice shaking. “Is.. is there... I mean, I can’t lose my scholarship,” he said, almost begging at this point.

When Jill spoke, her tone of voice had changed. She seemed to realize who Peter was. “No, it’s alright, honey,” she soothed gently. “If you bring a copy of his obituary then there shouldn’t be a problem with you returning come Monday morning.”

Peter breathed in shakily for several moments. “O-oh, okay... I’ll.. I’ll do that,” he said with a little sniffle. Tony hated how his chest ached at the pathetic little sound. “T-thank you, ma’am.”

“It’s not a problem, sweetheart. We’ll see you Monday.”

“Mmhmm,” he choked, “bye.”

Tony looked out of the window, arms crossed over his chest as he tapped his foot impatiently. “Play it again...” He listened to the boy speak, and he winced as he heard the utter devastation in his voice. After it had played the second time, he waved his hand to dismiss it.

He brought up a picture of the kid on his phone from when he’d been laughing with that other interns during lunch, having forgone the hair hell that day so his curls were plain to see. Peter’s smile bright and eyes excited behind his large glasses. Now, he wondered how he looked, and couldn’t imagine his big brown eyes filled with tears.

 

He dismissed the picture with a frustrated growl. “What the hell is this kid?” he demanded of himself. “He’s just some kid.” Tony walked to the bar, grabbing the brandy, uncapping the crystal decanter and pulling a glass closer. He paused as he was about to pour it, staring at the bottle a moment.

While over the years he had had a drink or two, it had almost always been during social events; a party or a champagne during a celebration. It had been a long time since he drank to just drink. And it was even longer since he’d gotten mind-numbing drunk.

Tony clenched his jaw and corked the crystal decanter hard enough that it threatened to break and slid it away from himself as it hit the wall with a small ‘bump’ and nothing more. He turned away and decided to go down to his lab and not think about one Peter Parker for the rest of the weekend, just him and his lab and his nano-tech.

He was unsuccessful. Tony ordered to continue to keep him informed on the boy’s progress and to inform him immediately the moment he returned to the tower.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A curious spider...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a problem writing past and present tense, so sorry if I suddenly switch from one to the other in the middle of a paragraph. Also, forgive the blasphemy from Tony. I’d never talk like, but he does. I’m so mortified and ashamed by the use of it.

**Chapter Four**

_Thought I found a way_  
Thought I found a way out  
_But_ _you_ _never_ _go_ _away_  
_So_ _I_ _guess_ _I_ _gotta_ _stay_ _now_...

 _Oh, I hope someday_  
_I'll make it out of here_  
_Even_ _if_ _it_ _takes_ _all_ _night_  
_or_ _a_ _hundred_ _years_  
_Need_ _a_ _place_ _to_ _hide_ ,  
_but_ _I_ _can't_ _find_ _one_ _near_  
_Wanna_ _feel_ _alive_ ,  
_outside_ _I_ _can't_ _fight_ _my_ _fear_...

_Isn't it lovely, all alone?_

_Heart made of glass,  
my mind of stone..._

-lovely, Billie Eilish

\- - - -

It was Saturday night when it happened. He had wandered the streets all along Queens with little hope of catching a glimpse of him. Now, here he stood. The man that had killed his uncle.

 _’Peter, y...you gotta take care of your aunt.....’_ He could hear his uncle’s voice as he laying dying in that dirty alleyway, his hands that had been stained in his blood clenched at his sides.

This man had killed his uncle. For the forty dollars he had left in his wallet and the twenty Peter had had in his at the time. A wallet he hadn’t even able to hand over before he’d shot Ben in cold-blood.

And he was pointing the same gun at him again, having caught him in the middle of another mugging. He was hurting someone else. The older man pulled the trigger and his body just moved, jumping to the side with reflexes that weren’t normal. He saw this and decided to run instead of facing Peter. Well, he wasn’t going to let this murderer go, not this time.

The red and blue clad teen chased after him, not even bothering to check on his mugging victim, a plump young woman with short purple hair. His mind was just a litany of ‘don’t let him get away, he killed Ben’, over and over again in his mind without ever stopping. Never stopping as he ran, his feet pounding the concrete as he turned the corner. He’ was faster than him, and jumped, catching him by the back of the legs.

They tumbled to the ground, the man swinging his arms and kicking his legs wildly. Peter grunted as he managed to free one leg and his foot clipped him on the jaw so hard his eyesight went white for a few moments. Still, he somehow managed to hold on and got kicked in the face a moment later for his trouble.

He managed to avoid the next hit due to his spidey-sense, head ducking to the right as he managed to loosen one hand to catch said foot. Once he had him in his grip, it was nay impossible to get free and squeezed hard to get him to stop kicking him in the face with his other leg that he’d managed to get loose.

The mugger bent at the waist and swung at him, Peter having to move his head and he’s still angry and getting more and more frustrated. He caught his next swing clumsily, let his leg go and hit him with all his strength. Peter isn’t sure how strong he is yet, but bending metal is a good indicator of how much strength he has.

However, he’s hurting, he’s angry and despite his anger there’s also the terror because this man _killed uncle Ben!_

The man flew back with a gurgle, not realizing it’s the only sound he can make because he’s knocked out most of his front row teeth by accident. He’ll freak out later when he realizes this, but for now he’s running on adrenaline and a frantic mania he can barely recognize. Peter stumbled to his feet, shaking his head as his vision swims since he’s been hit in the face and head one too many times.

“You... you’re coming with me to the police station, mister,” he slurred, and he can feel the trickle of blood at his temple. The man is out of it, practically unconscious and Peter grabbed him to drag him up. As soon as he’s moved, his head tips back and then he starts making a choking sound. “Hey... hey, what’s wrong?”

He pulls him up once more, and was horrified when he notices his missing teeth... _where are they?!_ That’s when he realized that he was likely choking on said teeth.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” he wheezed, glancing around but he doesn’t see anyone. He had seen the Heimlich maneuver performed on the television but hadn’t been formally trained in it. Even so, as the man starts to turn blue, he groans and knows he has to do something. He’d caused this and now had to save his life... save the life of the man that had murdered his uncle!

 _‘How is this my life?’_ Peter thought hysterically, before he wrapped his arms around the taller man from behind and started to push up with joined fists into his diaphragm.

“Come on, mister!” he grunted as he pushed a bit harder a few more times. He was relieved when he coughed harshly, heaving a bit before he doubled over and spat out several teeth.

When he was sure he was fine, he dragged him to the nearest payphone, bent a long piece of pipe around him to keep him from running away. His head snapped up when he heard approaching sirens, glancing around frantically and sees the gun by the dumpster.

Peter rushed over, grabbed it with the end of his sleeve, tossed it toward the man. He only has a second to see it slide and hit the side of the man’s leg, before he has to run. Then he climbed up to the roof and watched until the cop cruiser had pulled up. Peter sighed as they hand-cuff him after they’d managed to cut the bent pipe off him using some heavy duty bolt cutters.

 _’But you mustn’t stoop to their level... you shouldn’t hurt anyone, even when they deserve it...’_ he remembered the words of that nice old lady. He’d let it happen again, and he had hurt someone. Only, there wasn’t another nice old lady here to clean his bloody hands and he was sure his face was a mess of bruises.

What was he going to tell his aunt May?

\- - - -

Peter sat slumped in his chair as he ate his breakfast morosely, glancing at the woman’s stiff shoulders as she made coffee. To say that she’d been angry when she saw his face would have been an understatement.

She’d freaked out, which caused Peter to start freaking out, and then the yelling had started. He’d told her that he’d gotten jumped, but she didn’t believe that for a second.

Then he’d been called in Sunday morning to identify a suspect in Ben’s murder. They’d gone in, reassured the officers that he was fine and immediately identified the culprit... who was a bit banged up as well. May had been livid as she seemed to add two and two, but she had luckily waited until they left the station and were in the car. “Are you out of your mind?!” she’d shrieked. She wouldn’t believe a word he’d said about him having nothing to do with this.

It had been a very bad Sunday, and he’d been grounded for a week. She had left him go to the internship because she didn’t want him to lose it. This was his future and she wouldn’t do anything to harm that.

“I... I’m leaving May,” he mumbled, sliding his plate in the sink to wash it. She waved him off and he nodded. He was almost out the door when she stopped him. Peter turned anxiously toward her as she approached him.

She took his face in her hands, careful of his healing bruises. He’d noticed that he had a fast healing, but he had also been eating poorly for a while and thus it would take some time to heal. Peter refused to eat enough to fill him at home and make this situation harder on May.

“Please.. please, be safe. You’re the only thing I have left,” she told him quietly. She was still angry with him, but she also hadn’t wanted to let him go without saying anything. “I love you.”

Peter swallowed and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he told her, because he knew he would do this again. He had to. “I love you too.” She kissed his cheek and let him go. He’d convinced her that he was old enough to ride the subway to the tower at the beginning of summer, since it wasn’t much different from when he went to school.

She’d been clingy since Ben had died (or as clingy as she could be while working constant double shifts). So, he was glad that she was still letting him ride the subway by himself. After he assured her that he had his pass, he kissed her cheek and hurried out of the door.

Peter had already scanned a copy of his uncle’s obituary and sent it to the HR on Sunday after May had calmed down. He’d gotten a confirmation almost immediately that they’d received it and he was cleared to return Monday. He was impressed at how quick and efficient they were, not knowing that it was the involvement of one eccentric billionaire.

\- - - -

It was Sunday and Tony was in a meeting with the Avengers. Steve still wasn’t satisfied and had insisted on more training that day, and now was once more going over the things that could be improved. There was also chatter of weapons being sold, but at the moment it was just that. They’d need more investigation for them to even plan out a mission of any kind. So they’d moved on.

Rogers was talking about strategy in battle when his phone beeped. He immediately grabbed it, not pulling up the holoscreen since he knew if FRIDAY was interrupting a meeting, it was probably something about Peter. He was right, seeing that the boy had sent a copy of his uncle’s obituary.

“Is there a problem, Tony?” Steve asked him, glad that the tension wasn’t bad enough that he had went back to just using his last name.

Tony lifted his gaze and saw the rest of the Avengers looking at him curiously. “No, just some emails I need to send off,” he said as he waved at him. “Go ahead, don’t mind me,” he insisted.

Steve looked hesitant, eyes narrowing a moment on his face. When he didn’t say anything more, he nodded and went back to what he’d been saying. Tony opened the email, read over the obituary, sent Peter an email on behalf HR to tell him he’d been approved to return to internship Monday morning. He’d addressed it to ‘Mr. Parker’, since he didn’t want to seem too personal.

“Who’s Mr. Parker?”

His head snapped up and met Natasha’s gaze, having forgotten she was sitting next to him and could see his phone screen. He pressed send and the message took off his screen, having meant to send it in the morning, but oh well. Tony didn’t want to her to see anymore of the email then she had.

“No one,” he said too quickly, seeing as she raised an eyebrow. Damn spy. “Just an intern.”

He didn’t realize the rest of the Avengers had started to pay attention to them again, even Steve.

“It’s odd for you to concern yourself with an intern. Especially with Pepper as the CEO. Unless that’s changed?” she asked with that same curious expression that didn’t fool Tony for a moment.

She was fishing for information, and Tony wasn’t going to give it to her. He knew that she would likely find out about Peter sooner or later if she was interested enough. Tony wasn’t going to make it easier on her if she did decide to figure out why he was being evasive.

Frankly, Tony didn’t want the kid on any of the Avenger’s radar, especially Nat’s. The kid had just suffered a great loss, was probably grieving still, and didn’t need a nosy super-spy butting into his personal life.

Then he saw the rest of them looking at the pair of them again, and refused to answer her. “You’re being pretty tight-lipped about this,” she said, seeing as several of them nodded. “Is he a potential candidate for the team or something? Is he enhanced?”

He shook his head to that last question. “Absolutely not,” he relented, since he really didn’t want them to think _that_. Peter was normal, and while he was indeed a super-genius, he was a regular teenage boy. “And that’s all I’ll say about this subject. Are we done?” he asked Steve, who had been paying him and Nat more attention than their team improvement practices.

“Uh, yeah, it is getting late. We’ll pick this up another time,” he told him. He glanced at the rest of the gathered members, sparing a glance after Tony as he left quickly, the first one out the door.

He looked at Natasha, but she just smiled. “I think I’ll take up my room at the tower tonight,” she said off-handed. Steve knew she never said anything without having a reason, so her words were said with meaning.

“Yes... maybe I’ll do the same tomorrow,” he said carefully. He was interested in what was happening with Tony. It wasn’t that he was suspicious of the man, but they didn’t need a repeat of Ultron. Whoever this Mr. Parker was... well, it was always good to be informed about people that caught the billionaire’s interest.

Despite his assurances that he wasn’t enhanced, he might be and Tony simply didn’t want to divulge it for some reason. Or it could be nothing. Steve didn’t like to be surprised, especially if things tended to explode in their faces. Not to be redundant, but Ultron came to mind once more.

\- - - -

Tony didn’t even wait to return to the tower to start hiding Peter’s identity so Nat wouldn’t find it. She had very good hacking skills, but she was no match for his. There were very little people that could match him intellectually, and it wasn’t a brag, merely fact.

He erased any mention of Peter Parker from the public servers of SI, including his scholarship and moved it and the payments on his schooling to his private account. Tony even instructed FRIDAY to mention that she had no records of a Peter Parker if asked by anyone. That meant that even when he scanned his card tomorrow morning, the AI wouldn’t say his name.

As he did this, now sitting in the backseat of his Audi as Happy drove him back into the city, he wondered at his reasons for doing this. It was a pretty big effort he was exerting to hiding Peter’s existence from his teammates (i.e. Natasha, possibly Clint). And while he could say that it was because the boy was thirteen and deserved to have a normal enough life despite his high IQ, he knew that it wasn’t just that.

He’d seen the boy on the videos, and he had once worn a Captain America shirt, once a Falcon bandana over his hair when an experiment they were doing might result in sticky substances in his hair. And while he’d seen the Iron Man patch on his bag, his hadn’t been the only one.

The boy was clearly an Avengers fan, and knew he’d likely be ecstatic to meet more of them. His eyes would likely light up, he’d stutter as he’d done to him and smile adoringly up at them, and they’d feel like heroes even when it didn’t seem like it right now.

Tony paused in surprise as he suddenly realized that he was jealous. He didn’t want to share Peter with the others, to have him look at them with the same hero-worship as he’d done at Tony. The man laughed sardonically at himself, leaning his head back against the soft leather seat and not for the first time, wondered what it was about this kid that had caught his attention so thoroughly.

And the man knew he was an Avengers fan, but not who his favorite was. He would just assume that it was Iron Man, since his shirt had been the first one he’d seen of his Avengers paraphernalia. Peter’s favorite Avenger had to be Iron Man, right?

\- - - -

He groaned as he woke, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but the voice cane again. “What is it, damnit?!” he snapped, sitting up in the bed.

He’d crashed into bed sometime last night, or sometime this morning is you wanted to get technical. He didn’t have to look at the clock to know it was ass o’clock in the morning, and he didn’t want to be up right now.

”Boss, you may want to see the New York Post,” FRIDAY said again.

He shot up in bed at that, pulling up his holoscreen as mental images of a another disaster made by an enhanced individual came to mind. They didn’t need anything else making the situation worse, and it was annoying enough with that vigilante in Hell’s Kitchen wrecking havoc. It was made worse by his use of a mask that had fucking devil horns of all things!

He had no patience to go hunting down a newspaper, and while he was sure someone in the tower had one, he didn’t want to wait. So, he pulled up the digital newspaper, and paused as he saw the headline.

**VIGILANTE BRINGS IN COP KILLER**

He quickly read the article and cursed. “Fuck, it’s the mugger that killed the kid’s uncle.” He heard an affirmative from FRIDAY that he paid little mind to and continued reading the article.

The police stated that they’d been called to the scene of a mugging by the victim that chose to remain anonymous. Apparently a man dressed in blue and red clothes and a red mask had intervened, chasing the mugger down.

 _’He was so cool, and ran so fast! He saved my life,_ the victim recounted to their reporter.

The vigilante, who probably had super-strength, had tied the mugger by bending a lead pipe around the culprit and left him for the police. While the mugger sustained injuries, it only consisted of a few missing teeth from the ensuing struggle.

When the gun found beside him with his fingerprints was tested, they discovered that the weapon was the same that had gunned down police officer Benjamin Parker of the 107th precinct on the night of June 27, 2015. His nephew, whose name was not released due to being a minor, was called in and positively identified the man as the mugger that attacked them.

Tony winced at that part, since he knew that would have been a difficult enough thing to do, never mind for a thirteen-year-old boy. He couldn’t imagine what Peter had gone through having to pick out his uncle’s killer from a line-up.

He glanced at the time and saw that it was 5:15am, and he’d been right that it was absurdly early. Even so, he was glad that FRIDAY had brought this to his attention.

The man was sure that anyone that had read The Post would likely connect it to Peter, especially as he had been out for two weeks. He knew he’d gotten close to some of the other interns, Jacob and Sally (the female intern that had taken him underwing), so they would likely have heard from the boy of his aunt and uncle, May and Ben.

Tony wondered if he should intervene and tell them not to say anything. After a moment, he decided against it, since he didn’t want to bring attention about how fond he’d become of the boy. However, he might take a trip downstairs for a surprise ‘inspection’, and if Peter happened to be there, well, it’d just be a coincidence.

He groaned at his own foolishness, berating himself as he went to take a shower. Even so, when FRIDAY informed him that Peter had arrived, he got dressed and headed downstairs via his private elevator. He’d start with the main labs first and make his way down, going to the intern labs last. Tony didn’t want to make it too obvious by going there first, and especially since he knew Natasha was in the building, and wouldn’t be surprised if a few more Avengers made ‘surprise’ visits.

Damned nosy bastards.

\- - - -

Tony gave the man his public persona smile as he showed him the latest project, seeing that it wasn’t really anything new and only an updated version of his last invention. “Yes, I can see that,” he said as way of an answer. He glanced at his watch and gave a sharp nod and excused himself. It was almost lunch time and he _still_ hadn’t made it to the intern labs.

It seemed that after visiting the first lab, word had gotten out that he was inspecting the labs and everyone wanted their invention to catch his eye. So, the brief perusal he had planned for each lab had turned into having to go to every work station to see an invention, or a new prototype. Frankly, it was turning into a head-inducing experience.

Tony was finished, and skipped the next floor labs and went straight to the intern labs. He hadn’t even seen the live video footage of Peter entering the building, so he went straight to the lab where the boy was at. Tony just hoped Nat didn’t go snooping through security footage.

 _’What the hell am I doing?’_ he groaned silently as he pushed through the door into the intern lab. His eyes, hidden behind red tinted glasses that combined with his black and red tie, scanned the room. They immediately found the mess of curls at the back, flopping as he gestured wildly, likely in excitement at something on the board. The board was facing the door, and thus the boy’s back was to Tony.

Jacob was the one that saw his first, sitting on the stool that was the norm in the lab, that way it could be turned and have no arm rests that’d be in the way, and it adjusted to any height. He jumped up, the stool clattering but managing to stay upright. “D-Dr, Stark!” he gasped, and almost immediately the chatter in the room cut off and there was dead silence. Also, Peter whirled around in shock, and Tony got a good look at his face.

Peter was on the other side of the room, but even from there he could see the bruises on his chin, the black-eye and the cut on his bottom lip. “What the fucking hell?” he hissed. The interns had started to chatter at him, asking him what he was doing there and asking to look at their projects, and for the second time there was silence, a tense painful silence that no one knew how to breach.

Meanwhile, Peter was shifting uncomfortably, because it looked like Tony Stark had been looking right at him when he’d said that. He glanced at his calculations, but he was sure they were right. So, why was he looking at him with dark brown eyes like flints? “Parker,” he barked, making Peter jump. “With me.”

The teenager was dumbfounded when the man turned on his heel and stalked out of the lab. He was frozen for a few moments before Sally gave him a gentle shove, and Peter scrambled after the older man. His mind was racing in confusion and terror, thinking he was about to be tossed out on his ear for missing all those days. The email from HR had said he could come back today though! He wanted to ask Mr. Stark what he’d done wrong, but he found that he couldn’t even open his mouth as he followed the man into the elevator he hadn’t even known existed.

The ride in the elevator was the smoothest he’d ever had, even the other elevator that the others used. This seemed to be a private one, and much nicer with cushioned walls. Anyone else might think that it was due to Tony Stark being spoiled, but he could see that it’d be useful for the superhero. If he was hurt, he could lean against it without jarring any injuries. And it was even more true now that the Avenger’s tended to make this their base of operations and place to get treated where they could get privacy...

Peter really liked reading any tiny tidbit about the Avengers.

His brown eyes went wide when the elevator doors opened up and he stepped onto the floor. He passed over the a large A surrounded by a circle and he realized that he was on one of the Avengers floors. _’Oh my God, am I going to meet the Avengers?!_ No, he didn’t think he had that much good luck. The good ole’ Parker Luck dictated that Tony Stark just wanted more height when he tossed him out of the tower.

The man led him into a room with a metal exam table, and he was even more confused. “Sit,” he commanded. Peter, for all his confusion and terror at imagining him being dissected, obediently trotted over and hopped onto the table. He immediately started to swing his legs childishly. “Fri, scan him.”

Peter squawked in surprise as a blue light came out of the ceiling and the wall and moved over the length of his body slowly. When it was finished, there was a beeping and then Mr. Stark’s AI spoke up. “There is extensive bruising around his face and jaw, and signs of a fading concussion.” The boy stared up at the ceiling in something akin to horrified awe.

”Woah! You’re so awesome, Ms. FRIDAY! Do you have sensors in every panel of the building or just this room? They’d be tricky to have them throughout the whole building and not have the employees feel an invasion of privacy, or fear of being randomly scanned. Not that I think it’s a bad thing, because then you can see if something is wrong with someone,” he started to yammer, trying to look at every camera at the same time that he was starting to make himself dizzy.“ He stopped when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder, and turned to look at Mr. Stark.

”Easy, kid, take a breath before you make yourself sick,” he said calmly, and the man’s hand grounded him the same way uncle Ben’s had. Then he remembered that his uncle was gone and he wouldn’t ever feel his firm hand on his shoulder again, bringing him back from a sudden manic-brainstorm that at times took him out of the present and what was happening around him.

The sudden sob was loud and strangled, and he cut himself off as his hand flew to his mouth. Even then, he couldn’t stop the tears that were suddenly spilling down his cheeks without being able to stop them. The thoughts of, _’Oh my God, I’m crying in front of Tony Stark’_ , was at war with, _’Ben. Ben. BEN! Oh God, he’s gone!’_

Meanwhile, Tony was freaking out, and his chest was also constricting with the same with a feeling that he could only remember feeling when he’d had a anxiety attack. Only, he wasn’t having an attack, but Peter _was_ crying in front of him so suddenly, when moments before he’d been on an excited tangent about FRIDAY’s sensors and capabilities.

Maybe he’d just been waiting to break down since he’d gotten there this morning, or since yesterday when he’d had to pick out his uncle’s killer from a line-up, but his eyes had probably not even seen the others. All he had seen was the face of his uncle’s murderer. This had just been the trigger that had finally broken the facade he’d been wearing for who knew how long.

Yet, Tony found himself with a real problem. He had no idea how to fix this. The last time he’d been confronted with a kid in pain he had told them ‘no need to be a pussy about it’. Tony couldn’t do that to Peter, had felt immense guilt even now over that other kid as well, who was still in Rosehill, Tennessee. He should know, he checked on him regularly, but not that he would ever tell anyone.

He was saved from trying to awkwardly console the kid by someone brushing past him. It took him a moment to realize it was Natasha before the woman was gathering the boy into her arms with a gentleness Tony had never known she possessed. “Shh, it’s alright now,” she murmured as the boy folded into her arms, body heaving with great big, heart-breaking sobs. He looked tiny in that moment as he clung to Natasha, the woman rubbing at his back.

Tony was aware of him saying something, and when he realized what it was, he wished he hadn’t heard it; wished he could flee from the room. “Ben... Ben... I’m... so.... sorry,” he choked between sobs.

He seemed to cry forever before his cried tapered off, his breath hitching every few seconds while he still clung to Natasha. Peter didn’t even seem to realize it was the Black Widow, only that her arms were warm and offered the comfort he hadn’t known he had needed.

At last, he pulled away, his eyes red and puffy and Tony winced in sympathy. Even if Tony himself hadn’t cried like that since he’d been very young, he knew that his eyes likely ached something fierce.

“Fri, an ice pack,” he muttered. A drawer opened out from the wall seemingly by itself next to him, and saw several medical supplies, including a few ice packs. He usually didn’t handle the medical supplies, since his medical knowledge was very miniscle compared to his other areas of expertise, which were many. However, he was able to follow the instructions as he took one, bent it in half as it popped and almost immediately it started to get cold.

He handed it over along with a cloth so it wouldn’t be in direct contact with his eyes, and Peter took it gratefully. Nat pushed him down, pulling out a soft hypoallergenic, sterile cushion covered in a latex free film from under the table. She put it under Peter’s head as he sighed and put the ice pack against his eyes. “Black Widow saw me cry. Shit, m’so embarrassed,” he grumbled hoarsely.

”Language, маленький,” Natasha gently chastised him. She pushed back a few of his curls away from his face as she heard him sigh in content. Then she looked at Tony with a raised eyebrow now that Peter couldn’t see them. _’Later,_ he mouthed. She narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t press the issue further. Well, if she couldn’t get any answers from Tony, she’d get them from the kid.

”What’s your name, child?” Tony glared at her, but she ignored him.

Peter chewed his bottom lip, glad he wasn’t to see her face or he’d be too nervous to speak. “I’m Peter, and you’re Black Widow,” he said with no small amount of awe. He couldn’t believe that the Black Widow had held him while he’d cried in her arms like a freaking child.

”You can call me Nat, маленький,” she told him. He moaned softly when her hand started to card through his curl strands, and Tony felt that jealousy again from yesterday. She’d found out about Peter despite his best efforts to keep him under wraps.

It was almost five minutes later that Peter’s breaths had evened out, and another drawer opened without him having to ask and Tony found a blanket inside. “Thanks, Fri,” he murmured. He found it strangely amusing that his AI was fond of his child intern.

Christ, but he was young.

He only now realized how much so tonight. Peter was much too young to be involved with the likes of them. While they may be ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’, but they were also infamous and dangerous to be around. He, nor the rest of them, had any business being around someone innocent like Peter.

Regardless, Tony knew that he couldn’t leave him now. Because he had taken one look at his face today, seen his battered face and had wanted to break into that prison and strangle that bastard with his bare hands.

The bruises were done recently and could only assume that they had happened during the mugging attempt. There had been nothing on the police report about Peter being harmed, but then again, it had only mentioned him briefly as him having been present.

Natasha turned to look at him, eyes sharp and serious and knew this wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience. Although, he didn’t let her see how uncomfortable her stare made him. “Start talking,” she told him.

Tony arched a brow at her command. “About what?” he asked her, refusing to make it easy on her. Mostly, cause he just liked to annoy her. Her face was always so expressionless and it was rare moments he ever saw any expressions that weren’t fake.

Although, he had to admit the the moment with Peter, her face had been the most sincere that he had ever seen it be.

Nat jerked her head toward Peter. “Him, Peter. Who is he, and why is his face like that?” she demanded. He didn’t like her tone of voice and what she was suggesting.

”Well, I didn’t beat him, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” he snarked at her, offended that she thought him capable. She nodded as if she agreed with what he said and it angered him more. Damn spy. “He and his uncle were mugged. The man was killed and I assume the bruises were done by the mugger.”

She was about to say something, when the boy whimpered in his sleep and she reached out at the same time as he did. He paused but she didn’t as her hands caressed his cheek to calm him, but she did look at him appraisingly at his aborted movement. “Who is he?”

Tony huffed out a frustrated breath and decided to just come clean. “He’s Peter... Parker, an intern here.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, because he was young of course. “I meant, who is he to you?”

Damn nosy woman.

Luckily he was saved having to respond by the door of the med-bay sliding open. “What’s going on? Is someone hurt?” Unluckily, it was Steve Rogers that stepped inside, followed by the vent rat, Clint Barton.

Goddamnit.

\- - - -

маленький - little one


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony pushes...

**Chapter Five**

_“You and me in a playhouse_  
_Living in a veil_  
_We never need to go without_  
_Memories bring no joy or peace_  
_We are alone and all we need_

 _Tuning out of their poison_  
_Every waking day_  
_Intolerance to overcome_  
_Fortunes won by the boys_  
_with their guns_  
_We are alone, nowhere to run...”_

—Bernadette, IAMX

\- - - -

_Peter wasn’t sure what was happening. He had thought he was on an intern day, it was Monday... wasn’t it?_

_However, it was dark and no matter where he looked there was nothing to ground or reassure him. He was also very aware that he was alone, the most alone he had ever been. Peter was not needy, nor attention-starved, but he also didn’t like being alone._

_**‘Petey... where are you? Stop hiding, and come out you little punk...’** _

_Peter looked around, hearing the familiar, amused voice but not knowing where it was coming from. **‘Ben? Ben, where are you?’**_

_The voice came again, echoing as if it were coming from all around him. **‘Petey, it’s time for school... no, I don’t care if you think you know more than the teachers, you have to go, young man.’** He remembered that, he was in his first year of middle school and had told his aunt and uncle after the first day of classes that he didn’t want to go to school anymore, because he was smarter than the teachers._

_They hadn’t been too happy with his petulant behavior and forced him to go. It was around this time that he had been tested and found out that he truly was smarter than the teachers at school. That’s when they started to look for another school, and he’d gotten tested Midtown Middle School with perfect scores, which was a STEM school that would challenge him._

_**‘Ben, please... I can’t do this without you** **!’** He words echoed back to him, splintering until it was just unrecognizable sound._

_Then he saw Ben, blood running down his chin as it spilled past his mouth as he reached for him. Peter tried to grab his hand, but he knew he would be too late. He was always too late. Even when he tried to save him, he knew he would fail..._

_**‘Ben... I’m so sorry! Please forgive me...’** _

\- - - -

Tony was being petulant, he knew he was, but he also wasn’t inclined to give a damn. He wasn’t moving from here until the kid woke up, and judging from the hour he’d already been asleep, he wasn’t going to be up any time soon. It led him to wonder just how much sleep the boy was getting after everything he’d gone through.

But back to the matter at hand.

He glanced at the three Avengers, Natasha sitting in a chair on Peter’s other side, Clint in the corner at Nat’s back and Steve leaning next to the sliding door. All three had been alternating looking at Peter and then at him. They had tried asking him about the teenager, but had been shushed by Tony saying that they were going to wake Peter up.

Tony alternated his time by being on his phone, answering emails from Pepper, which is the way she was choosing to communicate now that they were on a ‘break’. He wouldn’t be above saying he was bitter about it, but he also understood. She’d been through so much being by his side; from being almost killed several times, to being poisoned with Extremis, to dying but rising like a phoenix from the ashes due to the Extremis. So, he understood.

Steve gave him a look but Tony chose to ignore him, and he was definitely being petulant but it was also funny as hell watching Steve’s face twist up as if he’d smelled a bad stench. It was amusing Tony seeing his face like that. Besides, he needed to relax a bit instead of being serious all the damn time.

Honestly, he hadn’t been able to relax ever since the whole Winter Soldier debacle. That psycho had really gotten under his skin, then again, he could understand since it was his friend. Well, friend or not, he had tried to kill them all. If there was a possibility to help him, Tony would, because he was Steve’s friend after all.

“Come on Tony, you can’t just stay mute on this... who’s this kid?” Steve asked him. He’d crossed his arms over his impressive chest and he was sure if he were to stand next to the scrawny teenager, he’d look even more massive. As always, his hair was military short.

“Hmm, that’s an interesting concept, but here’s another... yes I can,” he quipped back with a smirk, the expression widening when the other gave him an infuriated look. He was so easy to annoy.

“Tony-”

He stopped when he heard a gasp from the exam table followed by a groan, and the four adults straightened as Peter shifted. The ice pack fell off his face, having been replaced by Natasha after half an hour. Even then, Tony could see that his eyes were still slightly puffy. Although, it wasn’t as much as it was an hour earlier. He sat up and reached out to him to keep the kid from rising, Nat doing the same from her side.

“Easy, buddy,” he warned. He remembered FRIDAY’s earlier assessment of his health and that he had a fading concussion. He wouldn’t know more about his condition without running more tests, and couldn’t do them without consent from his guardian. Tony didn’t want to alarm May, who was no doubt on shift at the hospital, since he knew she was a nursing assistant. Hopefully with not having to pay Peter’s tuition, it would make things easier for her. He’d like to help, but figured it’d look weird. Also, he doubted the woman would accept a handout.

“Missr S’ark?” he slurred, whether it was due to the concussion or sleepiness, Tony couldn’t tell. He smiled at him and not for the first time, wondered why the kid wasn’t wearing his glasses. The kid’s eyes moved to Natasha next, not yet able to see Steve and Clint from his position on the exam table. Tony wished he had something more comfortable for him to lay on, and made a note to have that changed. “‘Eeey, Tasha.”

He saw Clint tense from the corner of the room. The woman didn’t like that particular shortening of her name, and most of them didn’t dare push her. So, they just called her Nat. When she didn’t snap at him and only reached out to run a thumb down his cheek, feeling the tear tracks that had dried on his skin, Clint was a bit shocked.

“How are you feeling, маленький?” she asked him gently. She got one of the wet wipes that came out of the drawer that once more opened by itself. Tony was shaking his head at FRIDAY mother-henning his intern, but not that he could blame her, since he was itching to do the same.

Peter blushed as he took the wipe and used it to clean his face, but it soothed his itchy cheeks so it was a relief. “What time is it?” He felt a bit better from before, since he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. At the same time, he felt like he could stand to sleep a bit more. Except, he couldn’t because it was an intern day and those were the best, and he had already missed two weeks of intern days.

“You’ve been out for a little over an hour, kid,” Tony told him.

He sat up at that. “You mean I slept through lunch?!” He had to get back to the lab, Sally had a new equation she was going to show him after lunch, and Fernando (he was a half-Mexican MIT student in his second year) had wanted Peter’s help with his new invention. Peter knew he didn’t really need his help, but since their bad treatment of him at the beginning, they always tried to include him. It also helped that for a thirteen year old, he was possibly as smart, or smarter than all of them.

Natasha quickly tried to get him to lay down as Tony did the same, the man not even trying to hide his worry as Peter winced and clutched his head. However, when he went to tell them he was fine, he noticed the other two occupants in the room.

 _‘Oh shit! It’s Hawkeye and Captain America!’_ Peter’s inner fanboy shrieked as he internally flailed. On the outside, he’d frozen as he stared at them. “You’re Hawkeye,” he squeaked, since he was the closer of the two.

“Yeah, last time I checked, twerp,” he said, arching a brow when Nat threw him a look when Peter faltered. “Peter, right?” The kid nodded. “I have a kid your age.”

Peter brightened up, and he hadn’t known that Hawkeye had kids, or a kid. “Really? How old?”

“She’s six.”

Peter scowled. “I’m thirteen,” he grumbled. Clint was about to tell him that that wasn’t much better, when Steve stepped forward. Immediately, the kid’s gaze snapped toward him as his brown eyes got big. Tony recognized that look, since it was the same one he had given Tonly.

“C-Cap.. Captain, big fan... I’m Peter,” he said, voice shaking with nerves or excitement, it was hard to tell.

Steve smiled at him. “Nice to meet you Peter, I’m Steve Rogers. How are you feeling?” He was out of uniform, but even in his blue jeans, short-sleeved light blue shirt, he made an intimidating and impressive sight.

Peter squeaked, going red all the way to the tips of his ears. “I-I’m so good, really... I j-just... well,” he said, and Tony was amused as the kid’s hands did a sort of spastic little dance in his lap. “You’re... Captain America... j-just, the coolest!”

Tony frowned, and this was what he’d been afraid of. Because of course kids liked Captain America more. He had the clean-cut good ol’ American charm. He was Iron Man, and at times people still saw the ‘Merchant of Death’ when they saw him.

“Oh, I mean, but you’re c-cooler, Mr. Stark,” he stuttered when he remembered Tony was in the room. “I can’t e-even... I j-just... ugh, kill me now,” he moaned weakly, covering his red face.

Steve glanced in amusement at Tony, who scowled at him, and this made him actually freaking smirk. “And is Iron Man your favorite Avenger, Peter?” he asked, barely managing to keep the laughter out of his voice.

Peter snapped his head up. “Wah-?! No! Iron Man isn’t my favorite!” Now even Clint was grinning as he saw Tony deflate in disappointment. “Tony Stark is!”

Natasha chuckled at Tony’s stunned expression. “Oh, and why is he your favorite, маленький?” She adjusted the blanket around his lap, having taken his shoes off for him after he’d gone to sleep, a pair of beat-up red converse that had seen better days.

The adolescent glanced at Tony shyly, but he had turned away, pretending to be checking something on the holoscreen. Natasha wasn’t fooled one bit, knowing he was listening. “W-well, cause... he’s super smart like me, I guess. A-and, I mean, he graduated from MIT at 15! So, he’s... just... He’s Tony Stark,” he finished as if that explained it all.

Nat hummed. Before they could say more, Peter’s stomach growled loudly. Tony jumped at the chance to get away from this awkward as hell conversation. Also, the kid had skipped lunch. “Fri, have some lunch ordered and brought up.”

“Hey kid, did you know Tony’s favorite food is Shawarma,” Clint whispered as he came up behind Natasha and leaned against her shoulder. Peter’s eyes went wide at this, and archer snickered to himself at the awe in his brown eyes.

Tony flicked Clint’s head, as the other batted his hand away. “Stop telling the kid lies, Barton,” he said.

Steve jumped into the action. “I distinctly remember you especially wanted to eat that right after the battle of Manhattan,” he said, nodding as if what Barton had said was true. The fucking asshole. “It was the first meal the Avengers ate as a team.”

“I want to try it,” Peter piped up, eyes shining with excitement. He could eat the same thing they’d had at the start of being the Avengers, the original six!

Tony groaned and knew he had to order it now. “You heard the kid, Fri. One order of Shawarma, and four pizzas just in case,” he told his AI.

“The order has been placed and will be here in twenty minutes,” FRIDAY informed them.

 

 _‘So, this is happening’_ , Tony thought with a sigh, watching as Peter ate with one half of the Avengers team. Clint said something as the thirteen-year-old gave an unrestrained laugh, throwing his head back as his floppy curls bounced in that adorable way and fell into his face.

He should be angrier about this, he really should. They’d found out about Peter, they knew about him now and Tony’s obvious fondness for the brat. Peter was now on their radar, and he should be concerned and angry. However, Peter kept throwing him expectant glances every few minutes, eyes full of the same hero-worship, and Tony couldn’t bring himself to feel that angry.

Tony watched the others with Peter, the subtle way Clint encouraged him to eat when he got too excited about something he was saying that he forgot he was eating. He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen these things before he found out he was a father. The man was clearly parental. Then again, he had never wanted to see, and always kept himself a bit isolated.

Steve, while he wasn’t a father, was more of a brotherly figure than a fatherly figure. Like the best friend that kept the other honest, and Tony could admit that he kept him more honest than he would have on his own. Perhaps things had become strained due to the whole Ultron mess, but not enough that he still couldn’t consider the man a friend. He was indulgent with Peter now in a way he had never been with Tony, but then again, the kid was pure; he was innocent.

Then he saw the way Natasha was with the boy. He wasn’t sure there was a gentle bone in the former spy, but then he’d found out that Clint had kids. The man had children that called Natasha ‘Auntie Nat’, and if that wasn’t the most bizarre thing Tony had ever seen up til that point. Now, with Peter there was more of that. She even at one point reached over with a napkin and cleaned a glob of pizza sauce from his chin. Apparently, the Shawarma hadn’t been enough for the teenager’s monster appetite, since he’d finished a whole pizza almost by himself, and rivaled Steve's appetite which was very impressive.

Natasha had just spent less than a day with the boy and she already acted the way she was with Clint’s children, and even Clint seemed fond of him. Hell, even Rogers was easily interacted with him, and he suspected it was the wide-eyed look of adoration he wore when speaking to him. It was a look that, like Tony, he didn’t want to be responsible for destroying from those big brown eyes.

It was obvious that Peter was more familiar with older people, since even the interns he got along with so well were all older than him by several years. Tony wondered if he had any friends his age, since if he didn’t, then it was likely to be a miserable school life. It was something that Tony could identify with very well.

Due to his intelligence he’d been bumped up several grades, so his school days were very lonely since he stood out as being the youngest among the older students. It was even more so when he was shipped off to boarding school. He’d been alone until he met Rhodey, whom had become a friend he would likely have for life.

He wondered if the kid had someone like that, besides his aunt. It was nice to have someone your own age that understood you, to offer some form of support in certain things. Of course, Tony wouldn’t ask, since he didn’t want to get anymore involved than he already was.

Once again, he thought back to that kid from Rosehill, who had helped him, and whom he’d almost gotten killed in the process. However, the kid was a scrappy little fighter, and he’d managed to get out the flare canister from his Mark 42 armor he had give him earlier and saved himself. Peter seemed different to him. He was more soft, and he only had to see those bruises on his face to confirm that.

Tony wasn’t saying that he thought he was stupid, because he was super smart. He also saw the way he’d get lost in his own mind, and the likelihood of him getting hurt being around Tony and the Avenger’s less than peaceful lives was a very real possibility.

 _‘Fuck,’_ he growled mentally as he stuffed the last piece of his pizza in his mouth and chewed angrily. This was stupid. He had to get this kid away from them. Everything Tony touched was destroyed.

It was after the death of his parents had he had started to steadily push people away. Also, it stood to reason that he had been that way already due to his father’s upbringing. Afterwards, in his grief, he had driven Edwin Jarvis away, keeping him at arms length before finally he could no longer stand to see Tony kill himself with alcohol.

He’d tried to drive Rhodey away, but the airman was more stubborn than anyone gave him credit for. They hadn’t been as close as they had been during their college days though. Then Pepper, his sweet Pepper. She had almost died several times because of the dangerous life he chose to follow.

Oh, JARVIS... even if to most people he hadn’t been anything more than an AI, he had been more than that to Tony. He was the one that he had when everyone else had abandoned him, due to his own actions. The one that listened to him when there was no one there to listen to Tony when he was throwing out ideas, and the one that had been there when he had started on his journey as Iron Man. He might not have been there for the Mark I, but he had been there every other step of the way. FRIDAY was reliable, hell, she was invaluable, but she would never be to him what JARVIS had been.

Now, he was gone, and he feared that anyone that got close to him would suffer the same fate. He would destroy Peter the same way, so he should push him away. Tony just wasn’t sure he wanted to do that, now that he’d had him this close. He was bright and so alive. Why has he ever thought children were nasty, annoying things that wrecked things? How could he have been so wrong?

He saw Natasha watching his face, and he turned away. Tony wondered how much she had seen in that moment of weakness, what she had glimpsed in his face.

This was fucking ridiculous, is what it was. He was just some kid. Tony didn’t need some tween messing things up, not when they were in a bind over the Sokovia incident. He didn’t need to deal with this on top of that.

“Well,” he said as he clapped his hands suddenly, seeing as Peter jumped. “Not that this hasn’t been fun,” he said with forced sarcasm, “but I have more important things to do.”

He saw Natasha rolling her eyes, Steve frowning and Clint shaking his head. Peter looked after him as he left. “B-bye, Mr. Stark,” he called out as the man left, shoulders slumping in disappointment when he only threw a flippant wave over his shoulder.

Peter looked at Nat with his sorrowful eyes and she reached out to caress his cheek. “Don’t worry, маленький, you did nothing wrong,” she assured him.

He looked confused but nodded all the same. She led him to the elevator after he pulled his shoes back on and they’d cleaned up the mess. They had migrated to the communal area for the food, Peter just carrying his shoes as he had trotted next to Tony as he chattered excitedly about his new project.

Now, he left with a slump to his shoulders that she didn’t like. Damn that Stark pride. “Bye, Steve and Clint,” he said as they waved at him as he left the room with Nat. She walked with him until he stepped into the elevator. “It was so great to meet you, Nat.”

Natasha couldn’t resist giving him one last cuddle, handing him some healing cream for his bruises, before she stepped out of the elevator and the doors closed. “You’re not fooling anyone but yourself,” she said, not bothering to look down the hall where she knew Stark was. She walked off back to her room.

Tony grunted after she had left, sighing as he leaned against the wall. He was doing what was best. This is what he had planned anyways. He’d just keep an eye on the kid from a distance, and perhaps make a few visits to the lab to see what he... what the interns were working on. Then he’d seen those bruises and hadn’t been able to stop getting involved, taking him up to check on him. Then... all of that had happened, and he hadn’t expected Nat to show up, much less Steve and Clint.

He had barely interacted with the boy on only two occasions, not including the times he’d seen him on the video feeds, and heard him on the phone call to the front desk. Tony shouldn’t be this attached to him this quickly. The man wasn’t allowed to be fond of someone this fast, and especially when that person was a thirteen year old boy. He was sure if the boy’s aunt found out, she’d likely object, because it was strange by all accounts. Tony wasn’t saying it was strange, because it wasn’t like that. Mostly, he was just making excuses as to why he should hold Peter at arm’s length.

“Damnit”, he sighed, shaking his head at himself and walking off. Maybe a few hours tinkering in his lab would give him a fresher perspective afterwards.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter perfects his webshooters and Tony contemplates why he’s drawn to a certain intern...

**Chapter Six**

_“You’re the wildest wind,_  
_The electric moon,_  
_Sunday morning photographs_  
_will only open Sunday_  
_morning wounds._

 _When the melody ends_  
_I will be waiting here  
for you._  
_My wildest wind,_  
_come blow into my room...”_

-Wildest Wind, IAMX

\- - - -

Peter held the small jar of the ointment he had been given, thinking of putting it on as soon as he got home. Although, he might not even need it since he’d eaten very well today, and likely would again tomorrow when he came for his internship. So, maybe he could save the cream, or perhaps test it since apparently Dr. Bruce freaking Banner had made it along with help from another doctor’s help. At least that’s what he’d been told when Tony had given it to him; he was sure the other was a woman doctor but couldn’t remember her name at the moment.

Then Tony had left, stating that he had more important things to do... besides hanging out with a thirteen year old. He’d been stupid, because this was Tony Stark, and of course he had better things to do than hang out with some kid. He put the small jar inside his pocket for now, thinking he would put it in his bag as soon as he got down to the intern lab.

Now that he was thinking of the cream and his fast healing abilities, he wondered how it worked, and if it was linked to his fast metabolism. He wanted to do research on it, but Stark industries mostly dealt with technologic advances as well as clean sustainable energy. They didn’t have anything to do with anything resembling biology. Oscorp certainly had the best labs for that sort of thing. However, he didn’t want to go near that place again if he could help it.

When Peter returned to the lab, the rest of the interns were glad to see him, since like Peter, they had thought he had gotten dismissed from the intership because of the days he’d missed. He felt a rush of gratitude when they told him they’d been about to all go down to HR to ask for leniency for Peter. Luckily, he’d gotten back before they could, because while he was grateful, he didn’t want them to jeopardize their own internships.

Then Sally sent them off and after handing him an energy bar since he’d missed lunch (even when he had insisted that he had eaten), Fernando came over and they went to work on his new invention. As he had figured, he hadn’t really needed his help and just wanted to include him. The older male was pretty smart, and he was a nice guy that was the first in his family to go to college. He deserved his internship there, and like Peter, he rode the subway here everyday, but he lived with his mom and sister in Brooklyn instead of Queens.

When they finished that, Peter went back to his own station and started back on his own invention. It wasn’t for the lab, but for his new ‘extra curricular activities’. He had almost finished with the devices that he would attach to his wrists. The tricky part was the capsules that would hold his new web solution, which he’d derived and perfected out of his cement glue.

By the time five o’clock came around, he was nearly finished and slipped them into his bag so he could finish them at home. He even had the perfect thing to attach them too, the red wrist bands that had come with the gloves he’d already been using. He’d use the cement glue to attach them, since it worked on all types of materials.

“Hey, Pete, let’s go!”

“Yeah, I’m coming!” The teen zipped his bag up, along with the cartridges he’d managed to perfect. He only had two right now, but he could easily use some of the things he’d found dumpster diving to make more. It wouldn’t be of the same quality as the first ones, but he didn’t want to use too many of the materials at SI and risk getting caught stealing.

\- - - -

It wold be hard to find the chemicals that he needed to make his new web formula, since he had perfected it at school. However, the campus wouldn’t be open until the beginning of August for registration for the new school year. That was also the time when his birthday would be, just after the deadline for registration.

Thus it was lucky for him that his uncle had convinced him to sell the formula, and the money put away for his college fund. He’d been trying to get his aunt to use it to finish her nursing degree, since SI was paying for his schooling now. She had refused, but hopefully he could convince her before too long. It would certainly help their financial situation, and put less strain on her.

Peter left the fourth store he’d visited with the two bottles of glue, since he didn’t want anyone to be suspicious if he bought the eight industrial sized bottles all in one store. Also, he’d bought four first aid kits, since he was sure he would need them. Peter didn’t fool himself into thinking that what he was doing wasn’t dangerous, because it was. Hopefully, his future injuries wouldn’t be as vivible as when he’d taken down his uncle’s killer.

 

Now, here he was a day later after his internship, on top of a near-by building to Delmar’s. His heart was racing from both fear and anxiety, since it was time to test his invention; web shooters 1.0. Peter was just a bit nervous about potentially falling to his death, no big deal.

So, he’d picked two buildings close to one another, and that way, if they failed he’d be able to land on the adjacent building. At least, that’s what he was hoping.

“Come on Peter... you can do this,” he mumbled quietly, trying to psych himself up. When his knees were still shaking a few minutes later and hadn’t been able to convince himself that doing this was rational, he knew he wouldn’t be able to.

Peter Parker was a poor, nerdy kid from Queens that had frozen in fear when a mugger had pulled out a gun. He then could only watch as his uncle was shot and killed. Sure, he had invented the web shooters and the web-fluid, but he was no hero.

Peter Parker was not a superhero... but Spider-Man could be.

Spider-Man had saved an old lady, fought again three guys (one which had a knife) and won. He had dodged a bullet and brought Ben Parker’s murderer to justice. Even if Peter Parker couldn’t do any of those things, was a weakling, that was alright. He would just be Spider-Man, and Spider-Man _could_  use the web-shooters.

“Come on, Spider-Man,” he said out loud.

He lifted his arm, used his middle and ring finger to press on the trigger and watched as a line of webbing attached to the water tower on the other side of the gap between buildings. Pet... Spider-Man took a deep breath... and jumped off the roof.

\- - - -

Tony brought the magnifying glass closer so he could see what he was doing better. He was once again working on his nano-tech suit, but he was making little progress at the moment. It was Friday morning and had been getting little to no sleep the last week. Thus he was exhausted now, which wasn’t helping his thinking progress. The days where he could go days without sleep and still create something brilliant were over. Hell, during those days even drunk out of his mind couldn’t hide his brilliance.

It had been a long time since he had been that drunk though, and he didn’t plan on it either. His drinking was only reserved to social events, and even then, it was no more than one or two.

He reached for his cup of coffee, but discovered that it was stone cold. Even then, he downed the rest of it, his face twisting in a grimace and decided to go make some more. As he waited for the coffee machine as it brewed a new pot, he leaned his hip against the counter and stared out of the windows.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful day, and wondered about going out for some air. Tony could go down past the labs on his way out, maybe see what the interns were doing, and he could possibly get a peek at Peter... just to see that his face was better, of course. For nothing more.

The man sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, the wrinkles on his face more pronounced with his fatigue and tumultuous thoughts. He’d been trying to think, yet not think of the boy. His intelligence is what had initially drawn him to him, having seen the article that had been done on his robot in the Post. He’d brought the idea of bringing him to intern with them to Pepper, since he was interested in meeting him and picking his brain.

Then the representative had come back and related what had happened, and that apparently Oscorp was sniffing around the boy as well. Tony had never liked Norman Osborn, and much less due to the allegations that involved his company and human testing. The man was everything he hated about rich people, that thought they were above the law when it came to hurting others. While Tony couldn’t say he had ever been free of guilt, he had never gone to the extreme of hurting those to further his company.

When he saw what his weapons were doing, being used to hurt not only their own soldiers but innocents, he had decided to do something. He’d shut down the weapon’s manufacturing side of SI, and when that hadn’t seemed to do anything, he had become Iron Man and destroyed his weapons. He had killed people, but they were men that were monsters and which had no regard for human life.

He saw Norman as the same way, so the thought of him getting to this young but brilliant mind and twisting it had not sat well with him. Then he had met the teen and seen that he was indeed super smart, but also very naive. That he also looked at someone like Tony with such hero-worship had been baffling to him. Although, it was that very reason he had checked on him, and continued to check on him. Even now, he was stopping himself from looking on him because he thought he might hurt him, or he would be hurt for being involved with him.

Tony sighed as he pulled out the pot when it finished filling, topping his cup and adding four spoonfuls of sugar (real sugar cause he couldn’t stand that artificial nonsense that Pepper constantly tried to get him to use instead), and a dash of creamer. He replaced the pot and moved to the window, standing there and looking out over Manhattan. This was the very same window he’d been tossed out of years prior, and even if he still had the occasional nightmare and panic attack, he had never been affected by heights or flying inside the suit.

He took a sip and savored the taste, and resolved to not think of Peter.

Tony lasted as long as it took him to get to the lab to pull up the security footage to see what Peter was working on.

\- - - -

“Wooo!” he shouted as he swung from one building to the next, having mastered the art of swinging in the last two days that he had been practicing. It was Friday afternoon after his internship, and the sun would set soon. He had wanted to patrol and get use to swinging a bit more before going back home. So, he had changed in the bathroom of a gas station that he knew didn’t have functioning cameras and the closest CCTV was two blocks over.

As soon as he took to the air, his backpack on for the moment, he listened to the sounds of the city around him. He was almost to Queens, which is where he usually stuck to, when he saw something. The young man took a moment to web his backpack to the wall under an air conditioning unit before getting a closer look, which was more than two blocks away; enhanced sight and all.

“Hey, guys!” he said cheerfully, waving awkwardly as the man he landed in front of gave a yelp of surprise due to his sudden appearance. It was a pair of thieves stealing the tires on a Ford Explorer parked behind the Starbucks, and had already managed to take one of them off. It looked like it had been there for a while, since it had two tickets attached to the windshield. Either way, the tires didn’t belong to them.

“That’s so nice that you’re helping the owner change the tires, but you don’t really have to! They’re obviously perfectly fine,” he said with a nod. The two men, one taking the tires off while the other was the look-out, stared at him a moment in confusion. It was likely because of his suit, but he had to work with what he had. It wasn’t like he could borrow stuff from the SI labs, since that would be stealing. He’d already pushed it with the web-shooters and made up for it by working harder every day he went.

The look-out took out a knife, having previously been momentarily stunned by Spider-Man’s sudden appearance, not having expected someone to come from above. Now, he lunged at him with a snarl of “little freak”, but the blue and red vigilante jumped aside. He turned to kick him in the back so he stumbled into the light post and wasted no time in webbing him against it.

His spidey-sense whined a warning, and he jumped but not fast enough as the swinging crowbar hit his shoulder. It was better his shoulder than his cranium. Even then, it hurt as the masked hero hissed in pain, and quickly shot a web into his eyes. The thief howled and tried to yank it off only for his hand to get stuck against his face. He kicked him against his friend and webbing them both together.

“Sorry, Mr. Thieves, but I think that wasn’t your car at all, and stealing is a no-no. Don’t worry though, the webs will dissolve in an hour or two, I’m not too sure!”

They yelled at him in outrage, and he quickly shot a web over their mouths so their cursing is cut off. “Don’t worry, I’m sure someone will come along in no time! Bye!” He attached to the building close by and swung off. As he did that, he _hoped_ someone came back before the webs dissolved. _‘Should I call the cops? Maybe leave a note?’_

Before he could decide either way, he suddenly heard shouting and cries of help. Spider-Man immediately started to follow the sounds, changing direction mid-swing. He looked down and saw an out of control SUV careening down the street and by the break lights constantly lighting up meant their breaks had likely been faulty. Also, it was speeding toward a busy intersection.

“Oh shit, oh shit!” he hissed as he sped up his momentum, getting ahead of the out of control vehicle. He hadn’t tested just how strong he was yet, since he’d been busy with the internship, working at Delmar’s, and hanging out with Ned in his spare time. Now, he had no time.

The masked teen dropped down in between the SVU and the bus it was about to t-bone, the black vehicle looming over his smaller frame as his heart pounded loudly in his ears, the screams from inside and the sidewalk filling his ears. He braced himself for the impact.

 _’Fuck, this is going to hurt,’_ he thought a moment before the SVU slammed into him at 40 miles an hour. He felt himself be pushed back, the wind knocked out of him, but the screams inside the SVU made him push back as his arms shook, the back end of the vehicle lifting up. Finally, it stopped and he was left heaving for a moment from the adrenaline rushing through his veins, the scent of burning rubber filled his nose, and the front of the SVU’s front crushed inward from where his hands had pushed to stop it.

The sound of cheering from the sidewalk snapped him out of it, pushing up and jumping onto the front of the vehicle before he webbed the building above and swung away. He knew he was likely being recorded, so he made quick work of getting as far away as he could, ignoring the pain in his chest for the moment.

He landed on a rooftop several blocks away, hissing in pain as he clutched his middle and knew he likely had cracked or bruised his ribs. It wasn’t like he could walk into a hospital with the way he was dressed, and going as Peter Parker would require an explanation that he didn’t have. Also, he didn’t want his Aunt May to find out about this. He was glad that May was working late so he didn’t have to explain why he was favoring his middle.

On that note, he figured that this was enough for today and started making his way back to where he’d left his backpack, and maybe check to make sure someone had come upon the thieves. As he went, he heard the distressed yowls and cries of a cat and child, respectively. His ribs were hurting, but he couldn’t just swing by; he had to help.

He landed on the side of a building, sticking to it easily as he peered down and saw a little girl sobbing next to a tree. The vigilante jumped and landed nimbly in the tree and quickly climbed down to where the black and white cat was at. He grabbed it by the scruff of its neck before it could react, bringing it against his chest before he flipped and landed on the sidewalk. The teen bit back his cry of pain at the movement and instead smiled at the child even if she couldn’t see it.

“Hey, kid, I found this cat, is it yours?” he asked cheerfully.

She had lifted her head in shock when he landed, giving a squeak of shock and fear, but now she gave a squeal of joy when she saw the cat. He easily relinquished the animal to her as she jumped forward to take the cat, which had been trying to sink it’s claws into his arms. Thank goodness for long sleeves.

“Oh, Binx! You naughty kitty!” she chastised the cat at the same time as she rubbed her face affectionately against its fur. “Thank you, masked person!”

He grinned as the cat gave an unhappy yowl at being squished. “It’s Spider-Man, actually,” he said, webbing the building and swinging away as he waved. The little girl waved back enthusiastically, but soon she had disappeared from his sight and he concentrated on not becoming a spider-pancake against the side of a building. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

A sigh of relief left him when he found his backpack where he’d left it, but it wasn’t like anyone would be able to scale the wall to get to it anyways. He saw a camera pointing in that general direction, glad he’d changed in the alleyway down below, and decided to find somewhere else to change. After making sure the thieves had been picked up by the police (they had), he swung a few streets over. He decided to web a few cameras on the way so anyone watching wouldn’t be able to track him and find out his identity. The vigilante landed in the alleyway close to Delmar’s, he quickly changed and then stuffed his suit into his backpack. “Hey, Mr. Delmar,” Peter called as he pushed past the door.

His ribs were still bothering him, but getting something to eat would help him heal faster, so he ordered his usual (with pickles, smooshed down really flat). He grabbed two packs of gummy worms, which were the kind that his Uncle Ben had always liked, and since his death he had started to eat them as well. The cook, Antonio was old and was thinking of retiring real soon and he hoped that whoever Mr. Delmar hired afterwards was as good of a cook as Antonio. He waved as he left, “See you tomorrow!” After a few minutes, he was getting on the subway to head home.

He’d already done his summer homework, so he had plenty of time to work on more web fluid and make carthages from the few parts he’d managed to find on a dumpster near an electronics store. Peter unlocked the door as he hummed to himself, pushing the door closed with his hip and tossing his bag on the table. He sat down in one of the chairs, pushing his bag aside and setting down his sandwich. After unwrapping it, he started to eat it quickly, since he’d worked up an appetite.

As he ate, he thought back to the last week. Peter hadn’t seen Mr. Stark for the rest of that week, and while he understood that he was likely a very busy man, he was disappointed. He had felt that maybe... well, he wasn’t sure what he’d thought, but it had been nice having lunch with the four Avengers, laughing and just... hanging out. Peter should have guessed that nothing would come out of it, and that Mr. Stark was just being nice because he had missed lunch.

A flush heated up his features when he remembered just why he had missed lunch, since he had been blubbering like a damn baby. It was no wonder the man hadn’t been back. He probably thought he’d up and cry on him again. Peter had to get better, for his aunt’s sake and for his own as well. He was Spider-Man now, and he couldn’t afford to be a stupid kid anymore.

He grumbled in annoyance and rubbed at his eyes with his arm, hating that this was making him cry. Peter couldn’t be a weakling. He wasn’t as strong as Spider-Man, but he was a genius. It should be easy to close this vulnerable part of himself off so he wouldn’t inconvenience the people around him.

When he was finished with his sandwich, cleaning up after himself, he went off to make more web-fluid. He would get better, and then maybe... well, he wasn’t sure how that would change things, but it had to be better than being an emotional wreck most of the time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team’s version of movie night...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not too familiar with the streets of NY, so sorry if I got it wrong. It‘s likely a tiny mistake, so yeah... well, it’s just ones of many, I’m sure.
> 
> Also, my phone died last night, so until I get it replaced, it might be a week or more until the next chapter. Sorry.

**Chapter Seven**

_“I should've known a little better_  
_Good things never last forever_  
_My heart in repose_  
_I need you the most...”_

-Filthy Pride, Social Repose

\- - - -

Tony jerked awake, the glove forming on his hand before he even realized what he was doing and lifted his arm so it was pointed at the person that had touched his shoulder. Natasha’s less than impressed face stared back at him, short curled red hair gone to be replaced by straight blonde hair. “You mind?” she said with a raised eyebrow.

The man snorted and lowered his hand, leaning back in his chair with a sigh as the gauntlet reformed back into his watch. He’d finally managed to work out the kinks and was fully functional now. “Christ, Nat. I could have shot you in the face,” he grumbled, trying and failing to stifle a yawn. The look she gave him suggested that she wanted him to try. “What are you doing here anyways?”

She arched a brow and motioned to the digital clock that was on the holoscreens that surrounded him. “Shit, it’s eight already?” He had honestly lost track of time, and while he usually didn’t sleep during the day, he’d not been sleeping well lately. It was mostly due to the damn registration act that was coming up more and more, which now had a name, the Sokovia Accords.

It was a veritable nightmare that they couldn’t seem to escape from, and no matter how much he argued, and called in favors owed, this was looking to be something that was coming without fail. He just wished it wasn’t happening, since the consequences were very high should it go through. While it was obvious that none of the Avengers had secret identities, that wasn’t true for every one else. The vigilante Daredevil came to mind, as well a few others.

He groaned as he stood, stretching after saving and dismissing the screens, and moved out of his lab as he had FRIDAY close and lock it, the lights clicking off after him. “So, what is it today?” Tony asked her, but she only threw a smirk at him over her shoulder. “Fine, keep your secrets then. I’ll find out soon enough.”

When he entered, Tony saw the rest of the team spread out around the common room. They all had their own floor in the tower, complete with living room and kitchen, but when they were all here they tended to automatically migrate to Tony’s floor. He didn’t mind as much as he’d like to admit, since that way it didn’t feel as lonely with just him.

“I see they dragged you into this as well, honey bear,” he said when he spotted Rhodes. The only ones that were missing were Thor and Bruce, but the scientist had gone missing after Sokovia and Thor had said he had things he had to take care of in Asgard. He missed talking science with Banner, but he could also understand why he’d want to just be away for now.

He glanced at Wanda, the woman giving him a tight smile before she turned away. Tony blamed her for it, and while he could tell she was repentant, that wouldn’t bring Bruce back. It also wouldn’t bring back the people that had died as a result of Hulk going out of control due to the Scarlet Witch’s mind manipulation.

She had a lot to make up for, and despite everything, they were willing to give her a chance to do so. That was the reason she’d been invited tonight, and hopefully it would become a permanent thing. “Well, let’s get this show on the road,” Tony said as he clapped his hand.

“I am still confused about this,” Wanda spoke up hesitantly, accent heavy on her tongue. The others had obviously explained what they were doing to her, but there was a slightly baffled expression on her face.

“It’s our version of movie night, only instead of watching movies, we compete to see who can find the best video online. Then we all vote on the winner and he, or she, is allowed one favor from each of the participants... within reason, of course,” Tony explained.

She nodded after a moment. “So, you can look anywhere online?” Wanda asked.

Steve chose to answer. “Yes, but we usually stick to YouTube, since outside of that the videos tend to be... uncensored,” he said with a grimace as if remembering something unpleasant.

“Like the time Cap accidentally stumbled onto a BDSM porn site!” Clint called helpfully. The others laughed as they remembered that particular Friday night; some of them getting light-headed from lack of air due to laughing for so long.

“Yeah, yeah, alright,” the blonde man groused, only slightly annoyed. It was nice to see them laughing, since it had been a stressful time for everyone since the Sokovia incident. That’s why Steve had decided to hold this after so long, and also include their two newest members.

“Now, we’ll give everyone twenty minutes to look for their videos.” He cut them off when they groaned at how long they’d have to wait. “Two of us don’t have videos already prepared, so quiet down. Now, if Tony doesn’t mind, FRIDAY will pick the order randomly.” Tony only waved him on, and didn’t comment that before it had been JARVIS that had chosen the order.

Tony threw himself into his usual armchair, running a hand through his tousled hair. He was wearing a band t-shirt and jeans, and hadn’t bothered to change. The man felt comfortable enough around (most) the people in the room that he didn’t have to hide. At times, a smart Tom Ford suit was as much an armor as his suits were.

He was able to hide behind the persona of Anthony Edward Stark; genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. It was the front he’d presented to Captain America and the others when they’d all been reunited to form the Avengers. Despite the scepter manipulating them to fight, he knew that he also hadn’t wanted to get close to them.

Then the battle of Manhattan had happened and they’d gotten to know him, and he’d gotten to know them. Now, to the people here, as with any you fought life and death situations with, he was just Tony, and even if he didn’t fully trust Wanda, he wanted to. Tony wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, because she was just a kid; barely nineteen. Another kid came to his mind, and it wasn’t the woman’s deceased brother (as tragic as his death had been), but a certain thirteen year old kid from Queens.

He huffed in frustration and banished him from his thoughts, but it was an exercise in futility. Tony hadn’t been able to do it all week, and he doubted he’d be successful now. Even so, he pulled up the video he was going to use and sent it to FRIDAY to play when it was his turn. It was pretty funny, although judging by the slight smirk on Natasha’s face, he had a feeling she was planning something he wouldn’t like at all. Tony was already regretting having agreed to this again.

Natasha’s preferred videos were of Tony doing something ridiculous. He remembered the last time she had won, and she had gotten a hold of the video of him testing his Mark II thrusters in the boots. Tony knew what was coming before it happened and had groaned, and then the him in the video had gone flying into the wall before falling to the floor, where he was then doused by a fire extinguisher courtesy of DUM-E.

That was another memorable night of uncontrolled laughter. Well, for everyone except Tony. He wondered how she’d even gotten her hands on the video, and suspected that JARVIS had given it to her, since it was on his private server.

God, he missed the snarky AI so much.

He planned on getting Nat back tonight, and that was a video he’d pulled from the security feed at the Compound. It was of the former spy training during a sleepless night, and her concentration on her movements was such that she hadn’t noticed a pigeon that had gotten in somehow and had nestled in the rafters.

As she was taking a break that consisted of a bottle of water and a power bar, the flying rat had swooped down on silent wings and snatched the half-eaten granola bar right out of her hand. While that was funny enough, it was the startled yelp, which was more of a shriek, that left her had been nothing short of hilarious.

Clint was the first one up, and it was a video of an old woman doing some odd dance moves to a dubious sounding music track. There was much hip thrusting involved as to be off putting. It was more weird than anything, and got murmured approval from all of them, and a shudder from Sam.

Wanda was second, and Tony paid more attention as he wanted to see what she’d use for her first round. It was a video entitled ‘Midget Bar Fight’, and they watched stunned as the video played of a couple came to the bar, a pair of little people. Then when the fighting started, they were as stunned as the people in the bar. When the police, which were little people came to break up the fight, some of the Avengers covered their mouths to stifle laughs. It was when the paramedics showed up, that were also little people, it was then that they all lost their ability to hold back. Clint and Sam were practically howling with laughter, but the rest of them weren’t doing any better.

 _’Damn,’_ Tony thought once he’d calmed down, _’that’s going to be hard to beat.’_ He doubted he’d win, but the goal wasn’t to win, just get back at Nat for always embarrassing him. While it would have been a nice change to be victorious just this once. Nat usually won, and the others had won at least one. Although, to Tony, Steve’s win didn’t really count though. At the time, when it’d been his turn he’d told them about accidentally stumbling onto an _’explicit page’_ and that he’d been too embarrassed to keep looking.

It was the look on his face and the mental image that had gotten them in hysterics, and Tony didn’t remember laughing so hard in his life. So, even if he had no video, they’d given him the win on sheer ridiculousness.

As for Tony, he had never won, not even once. He told them it was because they didn’t appreciate his sophisticated brand of humor. Clint had ceremoniously stated that he had no sense of humor. Rude.

Sam presented a video of a young man trying to climb a flag pole, but kept sliding down after getting a third of the way up. During one of his attempts another guy put a bucket of what looked like red jello underneath. When the pole climber slid down, his feet landed inside the bucket and sunk down into the gelatin with an unpleasant squelch sound. The teenager, since they were able to see his face, shrieked in horror and kept asking what it was. When he was told, he was pensive a moment, before he bent down and scooped a handful of jello into his mouth.

Every single one of them cringed or exclaimed in shock and disgust. Sam bowed as they clapped him for grossing them all out.

Then it was Tony’s turn and his video got more laughs than he’d expected. He got a glare with Natasha, but he only winked at her, because payback.

Rhodey had joined them before, so he knew what to expect. His video was of a kid eating a ghost pepper, and his subsequent freak out because of how hot it was. “Damn, Rhodey, you’re sadistic,” Tony called as the others were unsure on whether to laugh or feel sorry for the kid as he gave shrill screams and freaked out.

Before, Tony might have laughed, but the kid looked about the same age as Peter. He immediately realized what he’d just thought and rolled his eyes, wondering when the kid had managed to make him soft.

The others gave him a smattering of applause which he graciously accepted. Now it was Steve’s turn as Clint and Sam heckled him to which the super soldier flipped them off.

“Oh, Captain, my Captain! Why I never!” Clint cried out in mock offense as the others laughed at his antics.

His video was of someone (A man by their voice) with a body camera on top of a high rise building, and he proceeded to jump along the ledges on the side of the building. All of them watched in anticipation while on the edges of their seats, expecting him to fall. They cheered when he didn’t fall to his death as the video ended.

“People are nuts,” Sam declared and they all wholeheartedly agreed. They failed to realize that they all used high-tech gear or enhanced powers to battle global threats, almost dying and getting hurt frequently.

Now, the video he was dreading, and gave Natasha one last glare but she winked at him as he had done to her earlier. He had a bad feeling about this. When the video started, he cursed when he saw himself on there as he entered the intern lab on Monday. “Fuck,” he grumbled under his breath as the video showed as he took Peter upstairs to check him over for injuries.

The present day Tony threw the ceiling a dirty look, knowing that FRIDAY had given Nat the footage. It seemed she had inherited the same snarky attitude from her brother. He saw the other’s giving him curious looks especially as the kid broke down and Tony had a little freak out before Nat intervened. In the video Nat calmed Peter when he whimpered in his sleep and they saw Tony’s aborted movement, and now they were all looking at him as Tony pointedly ignored them.

When the video ended, even including having hid and watched Peter leave secretly, Tony had covered his face in embarrassment and exasperation. He could feel them staring, waiting for an explanation, but he wasn’t going to give them one. Tony wasn’t even sure himself what it was about Peter that drew him in.

He looked up and saw every eye in the room on him. Fucking Natasha.

“So, who’s the kid, Tones?” the pilot of War Machine asked. Of course Rhodey would ask, because he was the one he was closest to of the people in this room, without including Pepper but that was a whole can of worms he didn’t want to think about right now.

“You saw the video, he’s an intern.” Rhodey had been his long time friend and wouldn’t believe those words.

“You seemed awfully worried about ‘just an intern’,” he insisted. Tony rolled his eyes since he could hear the air quotes without needing to see them. “He’s not a secret love child you didn’t tell me about, is he?”

The man straightened in the armchair at that. “Of course not,” he denied, apparently too quickly as the others traded looks. “He isn’t, damnit.” He grit his teeth in frustration when their looks of disbelief didn’t change.

“He is pretty smart to have been given an internship at 13,” Natasha spoke up, the instigator. If looks could kill, she’d be on fire by now from Tony’s glare. “Have you tested him to make sure?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “You know what, I’m done with this,” he said as he stood to leave. A voice that hadn’t spoken up the whole time they were there stopped him. Tony looked at Vision.

“I believe it’s my turn,” he said, his voice almost like JARVIS as to be painful to Tony. But Vision was not JARVIS and he wasn’t Ultron either; he was something entirely new. The billionaire contemplating leaving either way, but in the end decided to stay. Maybe the android’s video would distract everyone from Tony’s involvement with Peter.

He sat down and ignored everyone else as FRIDAY, the traitor, pulled up Vision’s video which had apparently been uploaded that same day. And oh boy, did it distract them.

In the video, a masked someone in a poorly made red and blue suit was seen stopping a out of control SUV from slamming into a bus... with their bare hands.

“Holy shit!” Clint exclaimed, sitting up where he’d been slumped down in the couch next to Natasha. The woman had wordlessly straightened as well. “Is that real?”

FRIDAY spoke up. “The video was pulled from a traffic camera at the intersection of 164th St and 73rd Ave at around 6:30 PM EST,” he reported almost robotically. “There are other video sources of the same incident.” Tony didn’t even have to ask before she started playing a few shaky videos, one in the middle and enlarging and it appeared to be shot by a cell phone. They had a better view of the figure.

Tony stood up and brought up his holoscreen, searching the internet for more of this figure. He found another video of a someone trying to break into a car, and the same masked person swinging by, snagging their leg with something and pulling them so they were pulled away from the car. He was able to get a close up of the figure and blew it up.

“Well, hello there,” the genius muttered with a smirk. There was something nagging him about this individual, but he couldn’t put his finger on it quite yet. It was as he was looking for older reports and posts that he came across the Instagram post of a mask individual saving a man from being jumped that he learned his name. “Spider-Man, huh? More like Spider-kid in that onesie.”

He pulled up the first video they saw again, and asked FRIDAY to analyze it. “The vehicle is 3,031 lbs and is going at 43 miles an hour,” she informed them.

Tony was impressed and after testing it, he could tell that it wasn’t a fake or a hoax. “Damn, whoever he is, stopping that SUV was no easy feat,” he admitted. He glanced over at Steve and saw his pensive expression. “What are you thinking, Cap? Should we bring him in?” While it could be said that they were both the leaders, as it had been in the battles most of the time, he gave Cap the chance to make the call.

It was a difficult time to bring attention to enhanced individuals, and a masked vigilante stopping a 3,000 lbs vehicle bare-handed was sure to make some people nervous. When those same people happened to be the deciding factor of whether to pass the Sokovia Accords and tag enhanced individuals like cattle was left unspoken. They all knew what was at stake.

This man, since the close up confirmed that it was male, didn’t know he was inciting unease, so that meant he was on the young side, possibly as young as Wanda. Tony didn’t like the potential of bringing in someone that young and interrogating them. Even so, they might need to at least speak to him.

The other Avengers were aware of the potential passing of the Sokovia Accords, which is why none of them had taken any high-risk assignments for the moment. If they were to cause damage to public property, or heaven forbid there were casualties, then it might not matter if it was caused by the enemy. They would be blamed and any enhanced person would come under scrutiny.

It was a veritable nightmare that was brewing on the horizon.

Finally, Steve shook his head as his eyes narrowed on the video of the masked vigilante stopping the SVU from hitting the bus. “No, I don’t think that’s the best option. He doesn’t look to be causing any harm, and genuinely seems to be helping.” At times, the Avengers were too concentrated on the big problems that they tended to forget that there were normal people that needed rescuing as well. “The kid,” he started, already thinking as Tony that he was pretty young, “seems to be helping people. Maybe just talking to him is better than bringing him in, just to see what his reasons are.”

“I vote for Tony, since he already seems to be nurturing young people,” Clint spoke up. “He’s turning out to be a regular dad.”

Tony had been hoping they had forgotten all about Peter, but he should have known better than to think they’d let it go. A lot of people didn’t know just how damn nosy the Avengers were. “I think you’ll find that you’re the one that has dad experience, what with your secret family that none of us knew about,” he shot back. He was annoyed when the man gave a helpless shrug but refused to rise to the bait.

“Clint‘s right,” Steve started, holding a hand up as Tony started to protest. “I meant about sending you. His suit is crudely made, but we need to know if he’s using some kind of device to swing around.”

“Yeah, and find out if that stuff coming out of him,” Sam said with a mild look of disgust. Next to him, Rhodey made his own face of disgust at the thought.

Tony sighed and decided just to agree to save himself the headache with arguing with these idiots. “Fine, now all of you out,” he said, turning and starting to walk out.

“We didn’t pick the winner yet!” Steve called.

The billionaire flipped him off over his shoulder as he went.

\- - - -

Finding the Spider was harder than it seemed. It he had been a bit less careful and less smarter, Tony would likely have already found him by then, and also known who he was. He had several screens up as he searched for the vigilante, but thus far he had the foresight to shoot whatever came out of his wrists onto security cameras for several blocks that he hadn’t found a single video of him changing out of his shoddy suit.

The thing he had found, was footage of him from the same day as he stopped a SUV of landing on a building where a backpack was glued to the wall with something white. He seemed to sense the gaze of the camera, turning to look over his shoulder before he left. He sent a droid to see if it could find some of the white substance and continued to search.

It was successful as it brought back in a Petri dish what appeared to be... webbing. “Huh, that’s... very odd,” he muttered. “Maybe it is coming out of him, since spiders produce webbing. It’s coming out of his wrists though not, well...” He chuckled and shook his head, not wanting to picture that particular thing.

After a few experiments, he was very impressed at the tensile strength of the webbing and he was sure that with enough of it, the web could hold a car, possibly something heavier. The possibilities were endless, really. It had a familiar chemical compound, similar to the cement glue Peter had invented and wondered if this Spider-guy hadn’t used the glue and then changed it’s composition. It wouldn’t be that hard with a science background, so he stayed with the belief that he was young, possibly a science major at ESU.

Tony worked Friday night until Saturday night, Pepper having to call in Rhodey to get Tony to go to sleep. Finally, it was Sunday that he was able to triangulate the general area this guy operated in. Usually it was Queens, and that made him think of the vigilante that had brought in Ben Parker’s murderer. _‘Was this the guy that helped bring him in?’_ he wondered. He’d wanted to access the police database to see the police report, had been wanting to since he’d seen Peter’s bruises. However, he had realized after the first time how foolish he had been.

If he was caught, then that would put more scrutiny on them. And it didn’t matter how good his hacking skills were, there was always the possibility that he would leave some trace behind that would lead the police to him. He couldn’t risk that, not now. The need to find this guy withstanding.

He went to take a nap before he went out, since he wanted to be semi-rested mentally when he went to meet him. Tony wondered what he would say to him.

\- - - -

Peter pulled the mask on, webbing his bag to a dumpster and made a mental note to come back in two hours before the webs disintegrated. He didn’t want someone to steal his backpack, since his clothes were in there.

A sigh left him when he webbed to the top of the building and swung up, the feeling like flying filling him. Spider-Man loved this the most, and while he also loved helping people, there was nothing like web-slinging. He heard someone calling for help and he quickly changed direction, and he hoped he wouldn’t break any ribs today.

 

It was almost two hours later that his spidey-sense whined in warning and he flipped in mid-air, landing on the building he’d been swinging past. He was stunned as an Iron Man suit rose from the alleyway he’d been about to swing down into that had his backpack.

“Hey, Spider-Man,” he greeted as the mask lifted to reveal Tony Stark’s face.

_‘Ah, fuck.’_


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony designs the suit...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some how, my phone revived suddenly after a day, which is odd. Either way, I’ve been sick with my damn allergies. This chapter has a bit of dialogue from Civil War when they first met in the movie. Only, the timeframe is earlier than CW, and while there are some changes, the dialogue is mostly the same.

**Chapter Eight**

_“When your summer days come tumbling down_  
_And you find yourself alone_  
_Then you can come back and be with me_  
_Just close your eyes and I'll be there_  
_Listen to the sound_  
_Of this old heart beating for you_  
_Yes I'd miss you_  
_But I never want to hold you down_  
_You might say I'm here for you...”_

-Here For You, Neil Young

\- - - -

Peter, because he didn’t feel remotely like Spider-Man at the moment, started to freak out as the Iron Man suit landed in front of him and Tony Stark stepped out of it easily. He was wearing a dark grey suit with a red tie, and he looked every bit as intimidating as he did in the suit.

 _‘Oh shit, oh shit! He knows who I am. It’s over,’_ Peter thought hysterically as he backed away from the man. He wondered if running away would make any difference, but decided that he should just face this.

Tony held out a hand as he stepped back again. “I just want to talk,” he told him, since he really didn’t want to go on a merry chase trying to catch the vigilante. The other started to speak. “Nah uh! Me first,” he interrupted, taking out his phone and missing Peter’s soft _‘ok’_. He pressed a button as he tipped it forward the holoscreen showing the video of him thwarting a car thief. “That’s you, right?”

Peter shrunk into himself. “Um, no... what-what do you mean?” he mumbled grumpily. He was trying to salvage this, trying to get Mr. Stark to believe... what? That he was cosplaying? Like that was likely, and especially since he’d seen him webslinging just now.

The older man eyed him, not knowing why he was denying this. He showed him the next video of him stopping the speeding SVU. “Yeah, it is... just look at you go. Wow, nice catch! 3,000 pounds at 40 miles per hour! It’s not easy. You got mad skills.” He put his phone away and looked at him, hands in the pockets of his slacks as he waited for him to deny it.

“That all...“ he started to deny, seeing as Tony raised his eyebrows and sighed. “So, what... what do’ya want?” he mumbled lowly instead.

Tony walked around him, scrutinizing him. “Nothing much, kid. I just wanted to meet you, see what makes you... do what you do.”

Peter frowned and opened his mouth, and stopped. _‘I just wanted to meet you’,_ he said, as if... as if he didn’t know him. He cleared his throat and kept his voice lowered purposefully now. “So, you don’t know...?”

The billionaire arched a brow. “Why would I know, Spiderling? If I knew, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to track you down. So, let’s have it, Spider-boy.”

 _‘He doesn’t know its me!’_ Peter thought hysterically, immensely relieved. “It... It’s Sp-Spider-Man,” he said, unable to help correcting him.

Tony snorted a laugh and looked him over. “Not in that onesie, you’re not.” He ignored his mumbled, “It’s not a onesie,” and walked around him, surveying his suit and seeing the webshooters on his wrists. “Ah, I see... so this is how you fire those webs.” He pulled at his sleeveless hoodie with a grimace.

Peter, no Spider-Man (because he needed to be Spider-Man or Mr. Stark would find out it was him), stepped away. “Hey, man, hands off!” He straightened his hoodie and scowled at him. “You won’t believe this, but I was actually having a real good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. I helped an old lady cross the street and she bought me a churro. And I stopped a mugging and no one got hurt. The mugger thought he had gotten away, and I nailed the backflip and landed right in front of him.”

Tony nodded and walked to the edge of the roof, looking down and knew his backpack was there. That’s how he’d found him, since he’d found a video of him swinging out of this alleyway. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any street-view cameras nearby this particular alleyway. “Who knows about your identity? Anybody? Anyone you’re close to at school? ESU, right?”

The younger of the two couldn’t believe this was happening, and that he was talking to Tony freaking Stark, who didn’t know he was the same intern that had been in his med-bay just last week. He wondered how this had become his life. If he interacted with the man regularly, he’d be afraid he’d figure out who he was. However, he was sure that wouldn’t be a problem. Because Spider-Man was nothing like Peter Parker. Besides, he’d only met with Tony Stark twice, and he was sure would never happen again; he was confident that it wouldn’t.

“Y-Yeah, man, how’d you know?” the teenager asked in his exaggerated low voice. He was trying hard not to fidget, but he was really uncomfortable right now.

“Look who you’re talking to, Underoos,” he said, almost laughing because he could practically feel the waves of annoyance coming from him at the nickname. “So, no one knows who you are under that... nifty mask?”

He quickly shook his head. “Nobody. If my... if she knew she’d freak out, and when she freaks out, I freak out. So, yeah...”

“You know what I think is really cool?” the older started, changing the subject easily and the younger of the two was glad. He held out a small cylindrical tube with a cap. “This webbing. The tensile strength is off the charts.” He tossed it at the vigilante and he caught it easily even with that ridiculous mask on “Who manufactured it?”

“I did...” Spider-Man said, then backtracked in case he’d made the connection between his glue and his webs, since they had a similar composition. “I used this cement glue they sell at the store and just changed its composition.”

Tony nodded, since he had suspected as much. His voice and his admittance that he went to ESU confirmed his suspicions that he was young, possibly between 19 to 22, no older. “Hmm... climbing the walls. How are you doing that? Adhesive gloves?” Tony stepped forward and grabbed one of his hands, but he immediately pulled it away. Damn, he’d been hoping to use his watch to low key get his fingerprints with.

Spider-Man shook his head. “I-It’s a long story. I was uh...”

Now that he was closer, he saw that the goggles had some kind of white cloth over them. “Lordy! Can you even see in these?!” he interrupted him.

The slightly shorter vigilante stepped away from him, batting at his hand lightly when he reached out to touch them. “Yes,” he snapped. “I can.. I can, I can see in them, okay? It’s just that.. when whatever happened happened, it’s like my senses have been dialed to 11. There’s-there’s way too much input. So, they just kind of help me focus.” And it was true. At times, he felt like the sunlight was drilling into his eyeballs with how brighter is felt with his enhanced senses, and it was the same with his hearing. And he didn’t even want to think about his sense of smell and how there were certain smells that repelled him now, such as peppermint and lavender.

Tony sniffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re in dire need of an upgrade. Systematic. Top to bottom, hundred point restoration,” he said, one hand waving him up and down. “That’s why I’m here.”

The masked male frowned, thinking he was making fun of his suit again. While he knew it wasn’t the best, it was all he had available to him. Sure, he had ideas of what a state of the art suit might be, he knew it wasn’t possible. And it wasn’t like he could use the materials at SI while he was Peter, since he’d be found out. “We... what are you talking about?” he asked Mr. Stark suspiciously.

“Why are you doing this?” Tony asked instead of answering his question. “I gotta know, what’s your MO? What gets you up out of the bed in the morning?” He didn’t mention that he had come on behalf of the Avengers to make sure he wasn’t a threat. To see if his reasons were good ones, and then he would decide whether to bring him in.

He was about to tell him why he did what he did as Peter, but stopped himself in time. “Because... I’ve had these powers for six months,” he said, which wasn’t the truth since he’d only had them for less than three months, but wanted to throw him off his trail in case he knew about Peter’s trip to Oscorp. “I... read books, I build computers. And... and yeah, I would love to play football for... for ESU, but I couldn’t then, so I shouldn’t now.”

Tony nodded, since he understood what he was saying. “Sure, because you’re different.”

“Exactly, but I can’t tell anybody that, so I’m not. Look, when you can do the things that I can, but you don’t,” he said quietly, looking down as he remembered his uncle. “And then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”

The man hummed and looked him over, saw the slump of his shoulders and figured something must have happened for him to feel a responsibility to do this, to put his life at risk to help others. Tony could certainly understand the guilt part very well. “So, you wanna look out for the little guy, you wanna.. do your part to make the world a better place, all that, right?”

Spider-Man sighed and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, just... just looking out for the little guy,” he agreed. And he realized how right that was. Spider-Man helped normal people with normal problems, directions, pulling cats out of trees, stopping a mugging, or someone from stealing someone’s tires (or their whole car).

Mr. Stark took out something from his other pocket and tossed it at him. “Here,” he said, and was once again impressed with how easily he caught it. When he looked at it in confusion, he spoke up. “It’s the latest’s Stark phone. My number is already programmed in it.”

His eyes went wide under his mask as he looked over the phone like someone had handed him the holy grail. “Woah, this is... so fucking awesome,” he said, awe in his voice.

“Language,” the man quipped, biting back a laugh. God, Cap was starting to rub off on him.

The vigilante snorted a laugh. “You hand me the best phone on the market and you’re worried about my cursing,” he chortled. He liked the hotrod red of it, and if it only had blue, it would be perfect. It was something to think when he got a case for it.

“Hmm, actually, this one isn’t on the market yet. It’s a prototype, and don’t worry, I won’t track you with it unless it’s a life or death situation,” he said. He chuckled when he looked from the phone to him. “You have my word, kid.”

For some reason, he felt like he could trust Mr. Stark, and wondered why that was since he’d only met with him twice. Well, three times, but it was different since he was Spider-Man now. “Alright, I believe you. I just hope I don’t suddenly have Avengers appearing at my apartment,” he warned. Not that it wouldn’t be cool, but it would totally blow his secret identity out the window. “So, why are you giving me this?”

Tony smiled knowingly and moved back toward the open Iron Man suit. “You’ll see soon enough. Get in touch if you’re ever in over your head, Underoos.”

He sighed. “It’s Spi... ah, never mind,” he said as the suit closed around Tony before he could correct him. “Thanks,” he said instead. The man saluted him and then he was blasting off.

Spider-Man watched him for a moment before going to the edge of the roof. “Hey!” he shouted when he saw someone trying to make off with his backpack. He put the phone away and the swung after them to recover his bag. Just another typical day as a crime fighting superhero, he guessed.

\- - - -

Tony exited the suit of armor and headed for his lab. He clicked on his watch twice and the discreet scan he’d done on Spider-Man came up. Mostly, it was just to estimate his proportions, since he realized he was serious. He wanted to make the other a suit, was just itching to give him that upgrade he’d mentioned. And there were so many possibilities.

He had just started on the suit when Cap appeared for an update on the Spider-Man situation. Tony closed the window of the suit and went to inform him of his meeting with the spider-themed vigilante. When the meeting ran late, he decided to get some sleep and start on it tomorrow. Besides, he wanted someone specific to help him with this.

\- - - -

Peter had bought a case for his new phone, but hid it in case his aunt asked where he’d gotten it. He wasn’t that great at lying, so just hiding it from her was better. It was amazing how many features it had, and he decided to keep it on him at all times. He never knew if he would need it.

The teen hummed to the song playing on his earbuds as he entered the building. He removed one and smiled up at the ceiling. “Morning, Ms. FRIDAY,” he chirped. Peter giggled as he felt a gust of warm air from the vents overhead.

“Good morning,” the AI greeted warmly. He swiped his card and her voice came again. “Omega level intern,” the Irish voice came again. Peter had found it weird that since the start of last week, his name wasn’t mentioned whenever he scanned his badge and wondered why that was. FRIDAY hadn’t been able to offer him any explanation, stating that she had no knowledge of his name, which was odd. He’d decided to drop the matter, since the one that had made the AI was Mr. Stark and he didn’t want to bother him with trivial things.

He entered the elevator and asked the AI to take him to the 17th floor, which was where the omega intern labs were located. “I am sorry, but I have been been instructed to take up to Boss’s lab,” the Artificial Intelligent program informed him as the elevator doors closed.

Peter’s head snapped up in shock, having been selecting his ‘Mellow’ playlist which calmed his mind when he worked. He’d planned on working on his new project today, having been just a bit behind due to working on his webshooters most of last week. Now, he was sure he wouldn’t get to do that.

“What?! Why?!” Peter asked, going to elevator doors as if he could force them open. He probably could, but he didn’t want to give away his super strength to FRIDAY and thus to Tony. “C-can you let me out, Ms. FRIDAY?”

When the door didn’t open, he looked up at the camera’s helplessly. “I am sorry, but Mr. Stark says he needs your help with something,” she said gently, as if trying to calm him down with a soothing tone.

Peter looked at the number go higher and higher, even more than last Monday when he’d been on floor 97, which was the med-bay and then floor 96, which was the Avenger’s communal area. Now, he went all the way to floor 99, which was just below Tony Stark’s private penthouse.

When the doors opened on the 99th floor, the thirteen year old was trying hard not to hyperventilate, gripping the railing on either side of him. He wondered what would happen if he just refused to move from here. When someone called the elevator, FRIDAY would have to move the elevator, since this was the public elevator.

“Please exit the elevator, there are people requesting the elevator from the lobby for the 35th floor, or else they will be forced to use the stairs,” she informed him. It was a low blow for sure, since the AI has started to notice that Peter was not an unkind person, and wouldn’t want anyone inconvenienced by him.

Peter took a deep breath, knowing he had to get off. He was being irrational, but after yesterday night, he was thinking that maybe Mr. Stark had figured out about his alter-ego, and wanted to... what? If the man knew, he would have told him then and there. “I... am I in trouble?” he asked FRIDAY, trying and failing to keep his voice calm, squinting as the lights started to feel really harsh on his eyes.

The A.I. seemed to take pity on him and dimmed the lights. “No, you are not in any trouble. Mr. Stark needs you for a project. Please, exit the elevator.”

It felt better with the lights dimmed, and the A.I.’s soothing voice made him feel calmer. “Alright... thank you, Ms. FRIDAY.” He stepped out of the elevator, the doors closing after him so suddenly that he jumped, and she dimmed the lights in the hallway as way of apology. Peter leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to still his rapid heartbeat. He concentrated on the feeling of the cool surface of the wall against his cheek, trying to silence his mind to no avail. His mind was never quiet.

When he finally managed to get his heart rate to a normal rhythm, he realized that FRIDAY was speaking to him. “Are you alright? Do you need to visit the med-bay?”

Peter shook his head, swallowing past a suddenly dry throat as he adjusted his glasses. “No... I’m fine,” he croaked. There was silence from the A.I. before a path lit up on the floor for him as he whispered _‘whoa, so cool’_ , before he followed it. As it turned out, the lab was the only thing on this floor besides a few rooms that were cordoned off for storage and materials for any projects and inventions made by the Stark genius.

Finally, he came to the lab, which was enclosed by study looking plexiglass, and a reinforced door. He couldn’t see much inside the lab, since there were many rooms within the lab itself which were separated with more solid walls. Peter pressed the call button, but the door just opened and after a moment of hesitation, he walked in.

He’d seen them from outside, the row of Iron Man suits, but now up close he allowed himself to gawk. Many of them were in states of disrepair and reconstruction, and he almost geeked out when he saw the remains of the Mark III. It was the one Mr. Stark had worn during the Stark Expo in 2010, which was when he had saved him.

Peter wondered if he remembered that kid in the plastic Iron Man mask and he contemplating telling him about it before he banished it as foolish. That had been five years ago, and among all the extraordinary things he had done that day and afterwards, he doubted a single boy in a toy mask would stay on his mind.

Besides, Peter would gain nothing from reminiscing over it. So, after an affectionate pat on the partially destroyed suit’s arm, he moved on in search of the lab’s owner. He found him in the next room, the automatic door opening with no sound. Mr. Stark was surrounded by several holoscreens. As Peter moved closer to get a better view, he saw that it was some kind of suit, but it looked too small for it to be an Iron Man suit.

Peter cleared his throat to get his attention. “You called for me, Mr. Stark?”

The man spun around in his stool dramatically. “Mr. Parker! Yes, I did!” He enlarged the main holoscreen so he could see it. Now that Peter could see it more clearly, he saw that it was an outline for a skin-tight suit, but it was the spider emblem that drew his attention. “How’d you like to help me make a suit for Spider-Man?”

Peter stared at him stunned, looking at the spider on the chest of the suit silently. _’Sometimes I wonder if someone is laughing at me,’_ he thought hysterically. It was the good old Parker Luck™ hard at work. “Y... you mean t-the vigilante? Why are you making him a suit? Is... is he an Avenger now or something?” Peter could feel both excitement and panic at the thought. If Mr. Stark extended an invitation to Spider-Man to join the Avengers and he accepted, he’d likely have to reveal his face to the rest of the team. He wondered what the others would think of the vigilante being an almost fourteen year old adolescent. They’d probably make him quit after getting over their shock.

Tony snorted and shook his head. “No, he’s too inexperienced to be an Avenger.” He was busy pulling up a video to notice Peter’s shoulders sag in both disappointment and relief. The video was from their meeting yesterday, and Peter hadn’t known Mr. Stark had been recording him. He’d have to be more careful next time, since he’d actively been looking for his alter-ego then it stood to reason that he’d be trying to learn his secret identity.

“I’m making him a suit because look at this tragedy,” he indicated as he paused it where the suit was in full view. “It’s an eyesore, and I can’t allow it to continue. A superhero is suppose to strike fear into criminals, not inspire pity.”

Peter felt himself bristle defensively, and he couldn’t even say anything to defend his homemade suit for fear of bringing suspicion on himself. “Well, I guess everyone starts somewhere, right?” he asked at he raised his eyebrows as he looked at Tony.

Tony hummed but didn’t answer and continued to study the video, starting it at the beginning as he studied the him in the video so much that Peter started to get nervous. Peter needed to distract him. “So, have you done anything else for the Spider-Man suit?”

That seemed to do it as he stopped and dismissed the video. He brought up the schematics of the suit again. “So, red and blue,” he said as he painted the suit red and the same blue as his homemade suit.

Peter’s lips twisted and shook his head. “The red is good, but go darker on the blue, I think.” When he’d bought that sweatpants and sweatshirt, that was the closest color to blue they’d had besides sky blue. So, he’d gone with the lesser of two evils, but he’d always regretted not being able to get dark blue sweats.

When he finished the coloring, adding some spiderweb designs on it and shading in the spider on the chest, the teen was practically drooling as he looked it over. “Wow! That’s awesome! What are you going to make it out of? Hopefully not spandex, cause Spider-Man would likely freeze his butt off during the winter. Oh, maybe make it with a lining of vibranium, if you have any and put in insulation to keep him warm. What about adamantium? That’s pretty strong as well. There’s also Kevlar, but not sure how to incorporate it and still have it be flexible. Although, making it semi-bulletproof is always good, or at the very least, stab-proof. Cause as a vigilante, it happens.”

He caught himself as he’d been about to say that he’d definitely almost gotten stabbed a few times. The teen was sure _that_ wouldn’t be taken well. Peter needed to make sure he didn’t say anything incriminating when he started to babble. It would be impossible to not babble, since it tended to happen when he got overly excited over something.

The youth glanced at Mr. Stark nervously, but he was watching him with a smile on his face that made Peter’s cheeks get inexplicably warm. “Well, you seem to be full ideas,” he chuckled, pushing the holographic model of the suit toward him. “Go ahead then and go nuts.” Even if he would likely not feel anything, Peter lifted a hand to catch the holographic projection, and it stopped. He couldn’t feel it though.

The teenager hesitated only a moment before taking over, opening it up and starting to add a thin layer underneath. “Well, it has to be light, since he swings around, and uh, there’s no telling how strong that stuff he uses is. The material should be resistant, but not too heavy.”

Tony brought up the chemical composition of the wed fluid and Peter was stunned just how well he’d figured it out. He wondered how he’d gotten a hold of some of the webbing. “It’s a kind of webbing. While the suit shouldn’t weigh him down, it wouldn’t matter because the tensile strength is amazing. It’d likely take someone with super strength to rip it, because it would get stuck on something sharp even as it cut through it.” He gave the formula as a push as it spun around. “Apparently, he designed it by changing the composition of your cement glue.”

He pulled up the chemical formula of his cement glue now and put them side by side. Besides a few changes, it was obvious how similar they were now that they were side by side. “Y-yeah, that’s my glue formula,” he admitted, hoping his voice didn’t give away how nervous he felt. Peter came forward and pretended to look over the formula. “This one was designed to dissolve after a while, might also dissolve in water.”

Peter took the formula up and started to mess with it. When he got a new change, his head tilted. “This might cause it to explode in a mess of stickiness,” he giggled.

Tony perked up as he came over and look it over before he glanced at him. His grin matched Peter’s, “Are you thinking what I am, Pete?” The kid nodded enthusiastically.

“Web grenade!” both of them exclaimed.

The older male pulled up some schematics and Peter realized it was improved web-shooters. He’d barely seen them yesterday and he already had a working prototype. Peter hadn’t really seen the man’s genius up close, but this just confirmed it. Then again, Peter had fashioned them from scratch with no real idea what he wanted to make, so he guessed he was pretty smart too.

“You know, we could probably make more combinations than that,” he said as he added the webgrenade in the repertoire, and he saw that he had a few in there already. He couldn’t see what they were, but was looking forward to checking later. “Hell, maybe even pass a small amount of electricity through the webs.”

Peter’s eyes went wide with awe. “Taser webs?” he gasped breathlessly. “That’s so cool, Mr. Stark!” He quickly brought up a holoscreen while his other hand danced frantically in midair with his need to start making that setting, right now.

Once he figured out the perfect change so electricity would flow through it, he finished it and tossed it in Tony’s direction. The man caught it and put it into the schematic of the webshooter that Tony had named _‘Webshooters 2.0.’_.

The thirteen year old smiled to himself as he noticed the name, and Peter guessed he and Mr. Stark were a bit similar. He decided to keep this thought to himself lest it affect their time together now.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has a talk with May...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no time to even re-read this to check for mistakes. I’m just exhausted and wanting my bed... alas, still several hours before I can go to sleep -_- Put me out of my misery and point out my mistakes, please!

**Chapter Nine**

_”It came to me like a voice from above_  
Or like a message in praise of platonic love  
And if you stand in the booth  
Then you don't have to sit with a stranger  
A perfumed gust drifts to my core  
I give you one last look  
Through a cross-hatched door  
But I'm messed up baby  
Like the Berlin Wall  
Tonight”

—City of Bugs, The Cribs

\- - - -

Tony was a bit amazed the way the kid worked easily with him, and even when he didn’t understand something, the man had to explain it only once and he got it. It had been a while since he’d worked with someone that had such an enthusiasm for learning, and made it look as easy as breathing. Only with none of the arrogance Tony had displayed at Peter’s age.

Then again, it had been mostly due to people doubting his intelligence due to his age. Never mind that Tony could run intellectual circles around people twice his age.

It was almost like having Bruce back with him, but much more different since he’d never felt protective of Bruce. Then again, Banner had Hulk to protect him, and Peter was a thirteen year old kid that had already experienced more loss than any kid his age should have to go through. Then again, tragedy wasn’t only a trademark of adults, and at times, no matter how much people tried to prevent it, children often suffered.

Now, here was such a child, one that likely matched Tony’s level of intelligence and would one day surpass him. He saw how at times he went on a tangent, losing himself in his mind, or the way his hands made spastic movements when he had an idea or was itching to create something from the information running through his head. Tony got like that at times, and especially when something was broken or could be improved.

That’s why he couldn’t wait til they found the Winter Soldier at last, aka James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. His metal arm was something that he was very interested in studying, and possibly improving since it was likely an outdated piece of Hydra tech. Even so, he’d like to see how it worked out, maybe take it apart when it wasn’t needed, or even before then. Whether the man would let him was another thing, but then again, they might need to relieve him of it until they deemed he wasn’t a threat.

This is one of the reasons he liked Peter, since he’d mentioned the idea and he had wanted to start right away until he remembered that they still had to finish the Spider suit. He couldn’t blame him for his excitement, since working on a possible future project of a prosthetic arm capable of being used in Avenger battles was very tempting. That had happened during their forced lunch earlier.

Jacob and Sally, apparently, had been worried when Peter hadn’t shown up that morning and their floor supervisor had told them that Tony Stark had commandeered Peter for a project he was working on. When he hadn’t shown up for lunch, they’d insisted the kitchen staff they send up a meal for him and ‘Dr. Stark’ both. It was Happy Hogan that had eventually taken it up when he’d come to investigate why a pair of interns was in the kitchen.

Tony shook his head as he continued his work, since he found it amusing the way how most of the staff insisted on calling him ‘Dr. Stark’ even if he always insisted on ‘Tony’. He’d graduated from MIT because at the time, despite protests to the contrary, he had wanted to make his father proud. Tony had completed the requirements for his Masters, and was already quite close to finishing the qualifications for his PhDs, doing his exams and breezing through them.

For a while, being a sixteen year old with the title of Doctor Stark had seemed attractive, but he had only acquired the doctorates on a lark, really. However, the toxic relationship between him and his father hadn’t changed with those doctorates, and then they had died and he’d decided to leave behind the title of Dr. Stark. He took over the reins of the company, making it successful, more so than his own father had. It was almost like he was trying to prove something to a man already dead.

Tony silently chuckled to himself as he shook his head. While he didn’t discouraged the people at Stark Industries for using ‘Dr. Stark’, he didn’t rightly care. He placed no value on the accolades conferred to him by an external institution, it held no true value for him, not after everything he had gone through.

Perhaps that’s the reason he hadn’t wanted Peter close, among other reasons. He had these doctorates that he had gotten for one reason or other at the time, but he scorned the institution that gave him the title by not using it. Tony hadn’t thought that would be a good mentor for a kid smart enough to already be getting accepted early into MIT. And Tony _wanted_ Peter to go to MIT. He wanted to see how far he could soar, what he could achieve.

That’s why he had mentioned the project about the prosthetic arm, doing it after the Spider-Man suit and the assumption that Peter would be helping with it. Because now that he had him this close, he saw how truly brilliant he was, and he enjoyed working with him. Tony was even debating with himself on whether he should steal him away completely and make him his personal intern.

Well, if his guardian approved that is, since being a regular intern and Tony Stark’s personal intern were two completely different things.

For one, he would come up directly to his lab upon arriving every day, and then twice a week when school started. The scholarship would be significantly better as well, which is the thing he would have to discuss with May. He didn’t want the woman to think he was giving them charity, even if he would be more than happy to help them out financially, and had the means to do it.

Tony glanced at Peter as he worked, youthful features lit up from the holoscreens he was looking at, the light reflecting off his glasses. That reminded Tony that he had seen him the other day without the glasses on and that he had meant to ask him about it. He opened his mouth to do that now.

Before he could, Peter blinked a few times as he glanced at the corner of the holoscreen he had right in front of him and gasped. “It’s almost seven?!” he exclaimed loudly. It was Tony’s turn to blink in confusion before also looking at the time, and 6:42pm glared back at him.

“Huh, it is,” he said. He hadn’t realized they’d been working this late, since he had planned on stopping at five o’clock.

The teenager turned into a flurry of movement as he saved his work, closing the screens before he started to quickly stuff the composition notebooks he’d been using into his backpack. He wondered what he had written in there, since he seemed to work best when he wrote formulas down on the notebooks despite the holoscreens he had to work with.

“Aunt May is going to kill me if I miss dinner,” he whined as he zipped up his bag and flung it up onto his shoulder.

As Peter had been rushing around, Tony had instructed FRIDAY to inform Happy to have the car ready to leave. ”Relax, kid, I’ll make sure you get home,” he reassured. When he had come into the lab in the morning after a good night’s sleep (for once), he had been wearing blue jeans and a black Iron Maiden shirt. He didn’t think this was appropriate clothing to wear while meeting the kid’s guardian, but he wanted to do it tonight.

He crooked his finger at Peter and led the way to his private elevator, Peter following him like a little duckling... if that duckling were practically bouncing in place behind Tony because he wasn’t moving fast enough. When the doors closed, he started dancing an impatient jig. “Geez kid, take a chill pill,” Tony said, leaving the elevator when the doors opened in the parking garage.

Happy held open the door and Peter practically threw himself inside. “Move the leg, I’m going to sit here,” he told him. Peter frowned in confusion but scooted over and Tony got it, Happy closing the door after him. “Text you aunt that you’re on your way and that I wish to speak with her.”

Peter opened his mouth to ask, but closed it when Tony shook his head. He huffed but did as he was told, sending a text message that he’d lost track of time but that he was on his way home, and that Tony Stark wanted to speak with her.

May:  _You’re not in trouble are you? Did you get caught in a closet with a fellow intern?_

Peter sputtered at the message. _’May! I’m 13 and most of them are over 18!’_ he texted back.

May: _LOL 😂🤷🏻_

The teen huffed and shook his head, wondering why all the adults in his life wanted to annoy him today. He stashed his phone away, not missing Tony’s look at his phone. Peter was mature at the man’s disdain toward his poor, old iPhone... he stuck his tongue out at him. Tony chuckled and reached out to ruffle his hair as Peter squawked indignantly.

He gave Happy his address, an apartment complex and he had thought they lived in a house. When he asked about it, he told him that they had to give it up because May by herself couldn’t afford the mortgage payment. Tony didn’t ask anymore after that, thinking that moving out of your home so soon after losing a loved one must have been terribly hard, for them both.

When they arrived, Tony got out first and Peter tumbled out after him and wondered how he could still be such a disaster even with his new balance and agility. Honestly, only he would still be clumsy despite the spider bite. He felt his face heat when he saw Tony’s fond expression as he righted him, having caught him by the arm. “Come on, clumsy-baby,” he teased.

Peter shrugged off his arm with a petulant pout. “I’m not a baby,” he grumbled, hurrying up the steps as he hefted his backpack over his shoulder. They rode the elevator up to the third floor, and as he approached the door, he dug into his back pocket for his keys. The bag fell off his shoulder and slid down to his arm as he pushed the door open. “May, we’re here,” he called, stepping aside to let Tony in before he closed the door behind him.

“Mr. Stark, welcome to our home,” May greeted as she stepped out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. “Would you like to stay for dinner? I’m making a casserole.”

Tony was about to agree just to be polite but he saw Peter’s wide eyes and minuscule shake of the head. “Ah, no thank you, Mrs. Parker. I have dinner plans after this,” he lied easily. The look on Peter’s face said, _‘Save yourself, it’s too late for me’_. “The reason I came here shouldn’t take too long. Anything else can be discussed at a later time.”

She nodded. “Of course, well please sit, and please, call me May.”

He sat on one end of the couch while she sat on the other after bringing a pitcher of lemonade she’d made for dinner, Peter throwing himself in an arm chair. “Only if you call me Tony,” he said with a smile. She conceded with a nod. “Now, the reason for my visit is Peter’s internship, obviously.”

Peter sat up straighter, a worried look on his face. “Is... is there a problem? I mean, did I...?”

He held a hand before he could go on an tangent or jump to conclusions. “No, there isn’t a problem. In fact, I’ve been very impressed with his progress, and so have his fellow interns and his supervisor.” He smirked a bit as the boy preened under the praise, always enjoying bringing a smile to his slightly chubby face. Peter still had a bit of baby fat and it always reminded him of just how young he was, especially with his huge glasses taking up most of his face.

“As such, I’ve drafted him to work with me on a side-project I’ve started up. The details are... sensitive, so I won’t go into them,” he told her. He saw her frown and he immediately reassured her. “It’s nothing dangerous, I assure you, but I prefer the tech not to be replicated by giving out too many details to anyone.” He crossed one leg over the other, taking the glass of lemonade she offered him even if he wasn’t a fan. Tony took a polite sip and was surprised that it was actually very good, not too sour or two sweet, an in between that was very pleasant. “He’ll be working with me, but afterwards, I’d prefer to still have him working with me.”

May contemplated his words for a moment. “You mean... like your personal intern?” the woman hazarded a guess. When he nodded, she pursed her lips. “What does that mean in terms of his scholarship?” She knew that it had to affect it, since he was here for a reason.

“Well, as my personal intern, the scholarship is more lucrative, being who I am. It means that he’d not only get his schooling paid for, but his living expenses as well.” He saw the scowl cross her face and knew this was where she would put up a fight. “May, I’ve had one personal assistant, and being that she was involved with taking care of my personal and professional affairs, it put her in the crosshairs of people looking to use her to get to me. That required security measures, which included a personal driver, an undisclosed place of residence paid for by the company and a substantial better pay because... well, because she had to deal with me,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m not the easiest person to get along with, I assure you.”

She sighed as she looked at Peter, seeing as he looked back and forth between them, his mouth open slightly in shock. That means that he hadn’t known this was the reason Tony had been coming here today. May imagined that he didn’t think he could catch the attention of someone as important as Tony Stark. She believed otherwise, since he was her brilliant little boy, so smart and so kind. Of course Tony saw his untapped potential, even more so now that he had started to work for SI.

“So, that means moving from here,” she said quietly. They hadn’t been at this place long, it was unfamiliar to them but it was the best she could afford, and it wasn’t even that bad. They’d had to move from the house, which was the last place the three of them; May, Ben and Peter, had been a family. This wasn’t their home, and the thought of giving it up wasn’t such a hardship. However, she couldn’t shake the fact that this felt like charity.

“This isn’t charity, May,” Tony told her as if he had read her thoughts. “It’s standard protocol because of who I am. You know who I am.” She nodded and he set the glass of lemonade on the table in front of them. “And more importantly, this gives Peter better opportunities for his future, more choice for college and a good position in my company.”

May heard what he was saying, but she didn’t know why he was saying it. What did Tony Stark gain out of this. So, she asked him point blank. “What do you gain out of this, Mr. Stark,” she asked, using his title to show the question was serious.

Tony sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m a futurist, Mrs. Parker,” he told her, because turnabout was fairplay. “Peter is the future, could very well be the future for Stark Industries.” He scratched the well trimmed facial hair on his chin. “I don’t have children, as you know, and that means I’m always looking for young people that could be the future of SI... Peter is one such person, along with another,” he said.

As soon as he said it, he realized how true those words were. He had never wanted to have children before, but that didn’t mean he didn’t think of the future and the children that would lead them into a better future. Peter was young, smart as hell, and could be the best of them all. He wasn’t a superhero, but he didn’t need it. Peter could be so much better than Tony Stark had ever been.

May inhaled before letting it out slowly. “The only way I’ll accept this if there are some ground rules,” she started. She was considering this, already accepting, because of Peter. He deserved all the opportunities she could give him, and if that meant swallowing her pride and accepting this, then so be it. “He will remain in Midtown, because I don’t want him to be uprooted and leave behind his friends, his teachers and what he’s familiar with.”

Tony nodded, glad this was going better than he had expected. Frankly, he’d expected to be tossed out on his ear. “Of course, that’s not a problem. I don’t want to uproot him.”

She nodded. “Also, no drivers unless absolutely necessary. He can take the train as he’s been doing.” He nodded after a moment since he didn’t like it, but he also didn’t want to push his luck. “If his grades start to slip while doing the internship, I will forbid him from going to it until be brings them back up.”

“That’s a given, May. Maintaining his GPA is important for his scholarship, and I’ll make sure to give him less to do if the workload is putting a strain on him. His well-being is important to me,” he answered honestly. It was the most honest he had ever been outside of his immediate circle of close friends.

May reached out to push a hand through Peter’s curls, the boy smiling at her as she did so. “I know your smart, baby, but I want you to take time to just be a kid, hmm?” Peter nodded, since he liked doing those things as well. He enjoyed building LEGOs with Ned, watching Star Wars, or just goofing off.

She looked back at Tony, eyes narrowing on him. “No cameras. We like our privacy, Tony.” Peter didn’t say how relieved that one made him, since if there were cameras in the apartment or the hallway, then Mr. Stark would likely figure out that he was Spider-Man, and he didn’t want him or anyone to know.

“I won’t put cameras,” Tony agreed. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t have access to the ones on any street they decided to live on. He just wouldn’t have any inside the apartment, or house, or whatever they decided to choose, since he would let her decide that. “Although, if you choose a place already with cameras, I can’t do anything about that.”

May conceded his point. “And I don’t want him involved in anything dangerous, or things having to do with the Avengers.”

Tony winced about that. “Well, the project we’re working on is... not technically Avenger’s gear, but it is close to it.” He saw the woman’s eyes narrow, and knew he had to at least reveal something to placate her. “It’s not.. dangerous. There are no weapons or anything involved. It’s a suit... for Spider-Man.”

The woman blinked. “The vigilante?” He nodded and she frowned in thought, unsure how she felt about that. “He’s the one that found Ben’s killer,” she mused thoughtfully. Neither of the adults noticed Peter tense as his alter-ego was discussed. May had thought that Peter had been the one to go after him, due to his injured face. Then the newspaper had printed the story of a vigilante capturing him, and then Spider-Man had started appearing more and more on the scene of crimes in Queens. So, she had finally believed Peter, but by then it was too late to file a report about him being jumped.

“As long as it’s nothing dangerous, then I suppose just making the suit is fine.” She narrowed her eyes in a glare at the man. “No working on the Iron Man suit.”

Tony laughed and nodded. “I won’t let him work on it, but knowing Peter, he’ll likely find the specs for my suit, since he’s gone and charmed my AI.”

May grinned. “He does that,” she laughed as well, pulling the protesting boy onto the couch with them as she kissed his cheek. “One can’t help falling in love with this baby face.”

“Maaay! Stop it, you’re embarrassing me!” Peter whined.

Both adults laughed at him.

And that’s how Peter Parker became Tony Stark’s personal intern.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-Man gets his new suit...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I’m exhausted and ready for sleep...

**Chapter Ten**

_”Memories_  
 _It's gon' take some gettin' used to_  
 _Memories_  
Feel the pain when it hits you  
Memories  
Don't you ever let them fool you  
Don't you ever let them fool you

 _'Cause I know that you know that it ain't true_  
I learned the hard way about trust, about us,  
about us...”

—Memories, Thutmose

\- - - -

Spider-Man jumped, landing next to the five year old as the screech of breaks was heard and he grabbed him up into his arms, jumped as he planted one foot on the car to use it as a springboard and flipped over it as it went by under them. He landed easily, the now crying child in his arms as tiny hands gripped the front of his homemade suit. Finally, the car managed to stop, and a screaming woman rushed into the road as she yanked the boy from his arms.

“ _Ay, mi amor! Gracias,_ Spider-Man! _Gracias_!” she sobbed as she clutched her son to her chest tightly, burying her face into the little boy’s long black hair.

The driver, a black man in a nice looking suit minus the jacket ran from the car toward them in a panic. “Oh God! Oh God! Is he okay?! H-He came out of nowhere! I s-swear I didn’t see him!” he shouted hysterically, looking to be on the verge of tears as well.

Spider-Man realized that his actions hadn’t been malicious, he’d been driving normally and the child had chased his ball into the street. It would have been a tragedy if he had run over the child, that would have ruined several lives, accident or not. He was so glad he’d managed to get there in time to avoid said tragedy.

“He’s fine,” he reassured the taller panicked man, placing a gloved hand on his shoulder to calm his hysteria. “I got there in time. Just make sure you stay and speak to the police.” That way the masked hero wouldn’t have to do so, since he might get arrested for being a vigilante.

The man nodded, taking in a shaky breath. “T-thank you, Spider-Man. If it weren’t for you, I would have killed that boy. And I don’t think I would have been able to live with the guilt.” He shook the masked vigilante’s hand. “You’re a hero,” he said with a heartfelt smile.

He grinned even if he wouldn’t be able to see it due to his mask. “Nah, I’m just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!” He waved at the woman and child, the latter waving a chubby arm in return, and webbed himself to the building before he swung off as several people clapped as he went.

He’d saved a few lives today by saving the child, but he hadn’t done it for recognition or for the applause. Spider-Man didn’t even do it to ease the guilt he felt over his uncle Ben’s death (even if it did soothe the hurt a bit). He did it because it was the right thing to do, and because he didn’t want someone else to experience the agony of losing a loved one.

As he was swinging along, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He flipped mid-swing and landed easily on the rooftop nearby, only needing a bit more of his webbing to propel his momentum. A man smoking in a nearby rooftop startled so badly he dropped his cigarette. “Sorry! But smoking’s bad for you anyways, so I’m not really sorry,” he called. The man grumbled, turning to enter the building again.

When he’d gone, Spider-Man pulled out his phone, which he’d managed to link to his other phone so he’d get his regular calls sent there. The screen read ‘You Know Who I Am’ and knew it was Mr. Stark calling Spider-Man, since on his other phone his annoying SI friends had put Mr. Stark down on his phone as ‘Dr. Dad’, which had made him flush hotly at the time. They’d made him swear he wouldn’t change it. When they’d put him down in their phones as ‘Baby Stark’, Peter had fled, good-natured laughter following after him.

He’d bought a strong case, an Otter since with his ‘other’ life guaranteed it would get damaged, but so far it was fine. It was almost as if the phone had been reinforced to withstand the life of a superhero, but then again, it _had_ been designed by Iron Man, aka Tony Stark. The case was blue, the same color he’d told Mr. Stark to use on his new suit, so now he called it his Spider-phone, which made him giggle every time, but that’s what it was!

“Eey, Mr. Stark, you actually called me!” he greeted cheerfully in his exaggerated low voice, since he didn’t want the man to recognize him. He was so glad he’d had a hand in making his suit, since he’d added a voice filtering modulator to disguise his voice. Tony had asked him about it and as Peter he’d answered that he was sure Spider-Man wanted to disguise his voice in case he met someone he knew.

He walked along the edge of roof he was on, keeping his balance easily. The masked vigilante was hungry and knew there was a pizza place on street level. Maybe he’d get a pizza before heading home, although he was sure this call from his mentor was because of the suit, since they’d finished it two days ago and Mr. Stark had said that he just needed to add some protocols before giving it to Spider-Man.

“Where are you, Underoos?” Tony asked, skipping the pleasantries. He could hear rock music in the background and knew that he was likely still in his lab. Peter had told the man that he had an old man’s taste in music. He’d looked offended, but the intern had just laughed.

Spider-Man flipped onto a lower rooftop as he decided to get that pizza, since his stomach had started to grumble with hunger now. “Oh, ya know, just out and about being a Good Samaritan and enjoying the cool evening air. It’s been pretty hot lately.” He crouched on the edge of the rooftop of the pizza place, wondering if he could convince someone to order him a pizza. The masked hero was sure he’d cause a disturbance walking inside dressed as he was.

The man grunted. “Come to the tower,” he told Spider-Man. The music shut off on his end as he mumbled something.

He laughed at Tony’s words. “What? You mean the Avenger’s tower? Why would I go there? You offering me membership or something?” He caught the attention of a lady and her kid about to walk into the pizza place. “Excuse me,” he called as he crawled halfway down the building, shifting the phone away from his mouth a bit.

The child with her shrieked in delight at seeing him and the hero chuckled and waved. “Hey, sweetie!” He angled the phone to his mouth. “Hang on, Mr. Stark.” Then stashed the phone in his pocket without ending the call, missing what the man said next.

He dug out his wallet and slipped out a twenty. “Would you mind ordering me a medium pepperoni and pineapple pizza?” the masked vigilante asked the woman. The surprised woman took the money, nodding as the kid jumped up and down at her side. Spider-Man leaned down and fist bumped the kid as she giggled, her little fist tiny compared to his own. “Thanks!”

As they went inside, the child waving back up at him, the hero flipped up and webbed himself to the higher building and landed on the edge where he proceeded to sit down so his legs dangled over the side. He grabbed the phone, glad to see it hadn’t hung up yet and lifted it back to his face. “So, Mr. Stark, why did’ya want me to come to the tower again?”

He put the phone between his shoulder and ear awkwardly, checking to see if he had enough web-fluid to get back home. It was still a bit weird to call the new place home, but that’s where they lived now. The apartment was a modest two bedroom with small kitchen and living room, and two bathrooms. Even so, it was the nicest place they had ever lived, so that’s the reason it felt weird calling it home. It didn’t feel like home. For Peter, home had always been that old house where they’d lived before Ben had died.

When he was sure he had more than enough web-fluid to get home, he grabbed the phone to hold it in his hand again. Normally, he would stay out on patrol later, but it was Sunday and he had his internship early tomorrow morning. It had taken the rest of the summer to finish the suit and he would start school again on Tueday, so Jacob and Sally had gotten permission to host a party for him Monday just before the end of the work day.

“I’ll tell you when you get here. So, come over and forget about the pizza,” Mr. Stark told him.

Spider-Man looked at the phone with a horrified expression that couldn’t be seen. “Forget the pizza? Such sacrilege, Mr. Stark! Pizza should never be wasted!”

The man snorted on his end of the line. “What’s sacrilege is pineapple on pizza. That’s disgusting, kid,” he told him. He got a text message and he put the call on speaker so he could check it, seeing that it’d been sent to his crappy iPhone.

Dr. Dad: _Hey, could you come to the lab for a bit? I want you to met someone._

Spider-Man almost laughed out loud, since he knew _exactly_ who it was that Mr. Stark wanted him to meet. Now, he was glad he’d left his iPhone at the apartment, so if Mr. Stark tracked his phone, it would show that it was still at home. “Mr. Stark, I’m not just going to waltz into Avenger’s Tower all easy peasy. How do I know you aren’t going to arrest me? Besides, I don’t know if I want to be friends with someone that doesn’t appreciate a good pepperoni and pineapple pizza.”

He perked up when he saw the woman come out of the pizza place, holding two pizzas and he flipped off the roof and landed beside her easily. “Thank you so much, ma’am,” he gushed as he took the box she offered him, refusing the change. “I’m starving.”

“Why would you put pineapple on pizza?” the little girl asked him with his small face twisted in disgust. “That’s gross.”

He heard Tony laughing on the other side of the line, knowing he’d heard her. “Man, I thought we were buddies,” he whined, the woman laughing at them both. He and the little girl fist bumped again before he webbed himself to the building and flipping up to the roof again. “I’m gonna head to the tower, but I hope I don’t have to suddenly battle Avengers or something. Cause that would really suck.” He hung up, texted Mr. Stark as Peter that he had LEGO date with Ned soon and couldn’t come, and started to head toward Avenger’s Tower. Spider-Man really wanted to get his hands, or rather, get into that suit. Mr. Stark had even put in an AI, but Peter had made sure Tony couldn’t use her to map his face when he put on the mask. So, he was really excited to get to know her. Mr. Stark hadn’t give her a name, but Peter had already decided.

“I think she should be named Karen!” Peter had told him when they had been designing her, the intern taking to the computer programming as easily as he took to everything else. Perhaps not as much as biochemistry, which he said was his best subject. “She can be like his computer wife!”

Tony had looked at him with a deadpan expression. “Did you just seriously reference Spongebob?”

Peter had chortled. “Did you just seriously understand a Spongebob reference?” He’d chosen not to answer Peter, and the intern had giggled until he was breathless at the thought of _the_ Tony Stark, aka Iron Man watching Spongebob Squarepants.

He landed on the side of the building, crawling up toward the roof. “You are not an authorized to be here. Vacate the premises before defensive measures are executed,” FRIDAY suddenly said.

Spider-Man startled and almost dropped the pizza, which would have sucked since he really was hungry. He’d gone to the trouble of webbing the box closed so it wouldn’t come flying out while he was web-slinging, and then only to drop it off Avenger’s Tower? “Woah! I’m Spider-Man! Mr. Stark invited me here! Please don’t attack me!” the masked teen exclaimed as he waved his free arm around frantically.

There was no answer for a moment and he prepared to jump over the edge in case he really _was_ attacked. “Confirmed. Welcome, Spider-Man. Please proceed to the elevator,” the Irish voice told him as the mentioned door opened.

The vigilante sighed in relief. “Wow, you’re a really scary computer wife lady,” he said as he entered the elevator, pretending he didn’t know FRIDAY’s name.

“I am not a computer wife, I am Mr. Stark’s personal AI, FRIDAY.” It didn’t take long to arrive, since as he had assumed, he was in his lab that that meant he only had to go past the 100th floor to get to the 99th floor. “Proceed to the doors down the hall and to the right at the end.”

Spider-Man whistled as he looked around. “This is so freaking amazing,” he said as he looked around. He proceeded down, feeling strange heading toward the lab as Spider-Man. Although, he felt confident that his secret was safe, since if even FRIDAY didn’t know he was Peter, than Mr. Stark wouldn’t figure it out either. He just had to remember to keep his voice lowered, since his regular voice sounded really really young.

He shrugged and went to the intercom and pressed the button. “Pizza delivery,” he called when Tony’s voice came over the intercom. The man snorted before the door opened. The masked vigilante came in and looked around, once more still pretending that this was the first time he’d been in the lab. “Man, we have got to talk science one day, Mr. Stark. This is so amazing!”

The man walked around the table. “Your science degree is showing,” he said. He was pretty sure the young man was a grad-student, or likely already had a degree under his belt.

Spider-Man rubbed his finger under his nose, or rather, where his nose was under the mask. “Just call me Dr. Spider,” he said in posh sounding voice. The man grinned and the masked hero was glad he could get him to do so even as Spider-Man. “Pizza?” he asked next to wipe that smile right off.

Tony made a noise of disgust. “No thanks, you keep that monstrosity to yourself.”

The other shrugged and hopped up on a stool, Peter’s stool actually as he rolled to a free table and set the pizza down. He opened the box and inhaled the sweet scent of tomato sauce and tangy pineapple. “Mmm, come to papa,” he said as he grabbed a slice, pushing up his mask enough to take a bite and then pushing it back down. He’d made sure to angle any part of his face away from FRIDAY’s cameras since he didn’t want to give Mr. Stark any hint of his identity. Also, he had a distinct mole on his chin that he was sure the man would recognize.

“So, whazzup uh Mizzer Stark?” Spider-Man asked with a mouth full of pizza as he turned away from the wall. The man wrinkled his nose in disgust and the masked male grinned, sure he could see the outline of his mouth to see it.

Tony motioned to the case that was sitting on the table. “That... is for you,” he told him as he sat in his rolling stool, locking the wheels in place. “A minor upgrade.”

He stuffed the rest of the pizza into his mouth, pulling the mask back down before he turned back to face him again. Spider-Man wiped his hands on his pants, since he had no napkins. He reached forward, flipping the latch and the suit sprung up as he jumped back. “Whoa! Oh my God! Wha- this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” the masked vigilante exclaimed, since this was the first time he’d seen it completely finished.

Spider-Man looked at Mr. Stark who had a grin on his face. “What do you think, Underoos?”

“I-but... I don’t understand? Is-is it for me?!” he asked incredulously, selling his shock because even if he had built it as Peter, it was still hard to believe that this was now his suit. This was _his_ suit, which he’d help build with Tony Stark. _‘This is insane! This is the greatest day of my life,’_ he thought as he touched the eyes of the mask.

Although, actually building it with Mr. Stark, every day they had spent together, had been the greatest as well. They were all good days, which after Ben’s death, he was sure he wouldn’t have again.

“So, put it on,” Tony told him. “I want to make sure it fits... did you grow?” He looked him up and down.

Spider-Man shook his head, trying not to panic. Had he had a growth spurt? “No, I don’t think so,” he said.

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, you’re what... nineteen? Twenty?” When the other didn’t confirm or deny, he shrugged. “You’re bound to grow a bit more. If it gets to where it doesn’t fit height wise, just bring it back in and we’ll adjust it.”

He couldn’t help asking it, since he wanted to hear what he had to say. “We?”

The man pursed his lips. “Yeah, we,” he said with a nod. For a moment it didn’t seem like he was going to say anything more. “My intern... he’s... he helped me make the suit. He’s a smart kid.” He turned to fiddle with something. “I asked him to come so you can meet him, but he had a prior engagement.”

“Oh,” Spider-Man intoned. “D.. does he go to ESU or to your alma mater?” He knew that interns were usually college kids.

Tony shook his head. “No, he... he’s in high school, actually. You’d like him, he loves science as well. The glue you used to make your web-fluid was actually made by him,” he said, and he almost sounded proud.

The vigilante felt his face heat up at the smile on Mr. Stark’s face as he spoke of him, not even seeming to realize it was there. “He.. he seems like a pretty smart kid. It’s too bad I couldn’t meet him.”

“Yeah,” Tony muttered. He waved his hand at him. “Now, go on and try on the suit. There’s a bathroom in the other room, and don’t worry, none of the bathrooms have cameras.”

Spider-Man nodded, since he knew this but the other didn’t know he knew. “Alright, I’ll be right back,” he said, lifting the case easily and bounding out of the room. He was eager to put it on, to speak with Karen and try the new web-shooters. The young man was sure it would be the best feeling to web-sling in this suit.

He smoothed the mask over his face and then turned to the full length mirror that was inside the bathroom. Finally, Spider-Man looked like a real superhero, and not just like a kid swinging around in his pajamas. He crouched down and then flipped onto the ceiling, and it moved with him like a second skin. And just cause he could, he left the bathroom like that, crawling on the ceiling.

Tony looked up as he wallcrawled in, arching brow. “I see your sticking to walls works even through the gloves of the suit.” He walked around him when he flipped back to the floor. “It looks good, but how does it feel?”

A grin spread over his face that Tony could hear in his voice, filtered through the voice modulator Peter had insisted needed to be installed. “It’s great, Mr. Stark! I can’t... believe how cool this is! It even changes my voice!” The voice modulator made Spider-Man sound older, and different to the how he sounded when he lowered his voice.

“You can thank my intern for that one,” he told him, picking up his coffee cup and drinking from it. He made a face when he found it cold. “He said that way you won’t reveal your identity if you meet someone that knows you out of the suit.” Tony made his way out of the lab, expecting the masked young man to follow. He heard him following, his steps light and almost soundless and wondered if he was purposefully making noise for Tony’s benefit.

“Well, maybe one day... I’ll meet him,” he murmured quietly. The pilot of Iron Man wondered what that was about, but decided that it likely had to do with trust. Hell, the man hadn’t even showed Tony his face, and wondered when he would trust me with that.

“Would you be opposed to meeting the rest of the team?” Mr. Stark asked him. Spider-Man’s head titled. “You wouldn’t have to reveal your face of course, since you’re not a member of the Avengers. So, you’re allowed to keep your identity, for now.” He smirked as the other shuffled apprehensively.

Spider-Man crossed his arms over his chest, his wiry muscled arms showing that Tony had the right thought about him possibly being nineteen. He was overly thin with sinew muscles that came with someone that was still developing, so he could possibly be eighteen even. Tony couldn’t think that he was younger than that, since that filled him with an uncomfortable feeling he didn’t want to think about. It was as if he knew that Peter was getting into trouble, and the thought that Spider-Man could be younger than even eighteen didn’t sit well with the genius.

If he were to see his face, then he would know his age, but the other obviously wasn’t going to let that happen. Even when he had been eating earlier, he had turned toward the wall and away from any camera’s in the room. That he’d been able to figure out where they were showed that he likely had enhanced eyesight as well, likely better than Captain, since even he had trouble seeing the miniature cameras that Tony used in his lab and the tower.

“I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that,” he admitted to Tony. “They’re the Avengers and the likelihood of them discovering my identity is high.” Tony arched a brow at him. “That’s not to say you couldn’t be able to as well! It’s just... well, all of them together knowing me, and then if they met me out of the suit, then they might figure it out.” He shrugged his slightly bony shoulders, and Tony thought that he needed more food than he likely got. It was likely his enhanced metabolism, since Rogers had the same problem and he was constantly hungry. “It’s just better to stay away from them.”

The elevator opened on the communal floor, and Tony saw as the younger superhero looked around curiously. “Well, if you’re going to come for regular maintenance on the suit, you’re bound to run into some of them,” he warned. He pointed a finger at him. “I don’t want you messing with the suit, or trying to hack into it. You could damage some systems.”

Spider-Man grinned but chose not to say anything to it. He didn’t have to hack into it, since he already knew how to disable things, and anything that Mr. Stark had added, it would be easy to figure out how to turn them off. That was especially true where Karen was concerned, since she hadn’t turned on when he put on the suit, and that meant that he had her turned off for the moment. The masked teen didn’t understand why that was, and asking Mr. Stark about it would reveal that he actually _knew_ about her, and thus give his identity away.

They entered the kitchen and Spider-Man froze in the doorway. “Son of a bitch,” he hissed.

“Language,” the blonde man within the group called out. He came forward, holding out a hand. “You’re the Spider-Man. Nice to meet you, I’m Steve.” The younger of two took his hand cautiously as the other shook it, grip firm. “We’re the Avengers,” he said, indicating the rest of their group spread out along the communal area.

“Yeah,” Spider-Man said, shooting Tony a glare. “I know.”

The man just shrugged. “I did warn you.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is finally done, but not too happy with it cause I’ve been sick and congested... Oh well.

**Chapter Eleven**

_“Loose ends, they tangle down_  
_And then take flight_  
 _But never tie me down_  
 _Never tie me down._

  
 _Off I go._  
 _Where I fall_  
 _Is where I land._ ”

—Off I Go, Greg Laswell

\- - - -

Tony had thought he’d seen everything by now, but this was awfully strange even by his standards. Oh sure, it didn’t qualify in the realm of being inside that wormhole that he didn’t like to think about lest he trigger a panic attack, or the nightmares again. Even so, it was fairly odd.

The communal area had all the luxuries that the Avengers needed to unwind after a mission. In the living area there was a a 65-inch flat screen television, and FRIDAY had in her memory practically any movie one could think about of every type of genre. There was three different game systems, since not all of the Avengers liked the Wii, and some of them preferred to play with the regular conventional controller.

There were also quiet rooms, for one or many people, and they were sound proof. They had actual books on a large shelf pushed against one wall, and a white noise machine with various selections. In the single person room there were comfortable armchairs, and in the larger ones there were soft, comfy sofas. Also, even if they were soundproof, there were noise cancelling headphones for those with more enhanced senses, but defined with Bruce in mind. While he knew that someone with enhanced senses was potentially only Rogers, that didn’t mean that later on there wouldn’t be others that would join the Avengers with such abilities, since Tony had always been a futurist and was always thinking of the future and what was to come.

All of the floors had their own small kitchen stocked with the food of the person or people living on that floor, but the one in the communal area was way larger. It was also stockpiled with food almost like it was the end of days, but it was necessary. After all, there were a lot of them, and one of them was a super soldier that ate as much as three fully grown men, and an alien from another world that ate about just as much.

So, with all of them interacting in close proximity when they weren’t on missions, it tended to get weird at times. It had just not gotten _this_ weird in quite some time.

The others had been eager to meet the younger hero when Spider-Man and Tony had stumbled upon them an hour ago, coming forward to introduce themselves and meet him. It was surprising the way the others had immediately taken to the masked vigilante. Then somehow, Spider-Man had gotten talked into playing Mario Kart on the Wii, and he had beat the reigning champ, Clint. This had only happened when he beat every single one and they’d sent Clint forward to reclaim their honor, only for the man to lose as well.

Clint, his pride hurt, had challenged him again, stating that his win was nothing more than a fluke. Spider-Man had called him a sore loser and told him he could beat him with one hand tied behind his back. It had just escalated from there.

That brought Tony to where he was now, watching Clint and Spider-Man playing their twentieth game straight with the younger of the two hanging upside down from the ceiling. And Clint was _still_ losing. By that point, the other Avengers had started to cheer the younger opponent, finding Clint’s frustration and desperate attempt to beat the other hilarious.

Tony couldn’t say he blamed them for having sided with Spider-Man, since even Tony liked him for reasons he couldn’t understand, and he hadn’t even seen his face yet! Well, he supposed he could understand, since he was charming without meaning to be, was eager to hear any advice bestowed upon him by the older heroes, and despite the mask and voice modulator, they were able to hear the sheer hero-worship in his voice.

He actually reminded Tony of Peter.

The man had a startling and sickening thought. Was Spider-Man... could it be possible Spider-Man and Peter Parker were the same person?

 _’No... nonono,’_ he chanted desperately, pulling up a holoscreen as he stepped into the hallway and had FRIDAY track Peter’s phone. _’Please, don’t be him... please,’_ he silently begged, heart pounding in his chest.

When it showed that Peter’s phone was at home, Tony let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Thank God,” he sighed as he leaned against the wall, the relief making his knees buckle. Tony didn’t know what he would have done if the GPS had indicated that Peter was at the tower.

Probably lose his shit. So, it was a good thing Peter was at home building LEGOs with his friend Ned.

Then because the man needed to make sure, he decided to call Peter. It wasn’t too late, and he wanted to see how he was doing since he knew that May worked a lot, and most of her extra shifts were during the night. And he also might have peeked at her schedule by hacking into the hospital’s employee records. It was only to check things and see why Peter was alone a lot, as per an off-handed comment he’d made. At least he had had Ned for company tonight, so there was that.

Tony stepped into one of the quiet rooms, since the others were making quite a racquet. Once there, he pulled his phone out and dialed the kid’s number. It started ringing, once, twice, and third time as Tony frowned. Did he have it on silent? When it seemed about to go to voicemail, Tony about to tell FRIDAY to force it through, the line connected.

“H-hey, Mr. Stark,” the soon to be fourteen year old gasped. It sounded like he’d run, or was he having an asthma attack? He might have looked at Peter’s records they’d stored on SI’s servers, just to make sure there weren’t any problems, and know what to do if there _were_ problems. That’s how he knew that he’d had really bad asthma as a child and it tended to crop up every once in a while.

“You sound winded,” he said with a frown, lifting up his arm as he got ready to call his suit in case the other was in distress. “Are you alright?” He was already calculating how long it’d take him to reach their apartment building, and was grateful that it was now in Manhattan now so it meant Peter was closer to the tower. Tony had kept his promise and pulled some strings to keep him in Midtown Tech.

“Y-yeah, sorry,” he laughed awkwardly on the other end. “I couldn’t find my phone and I was running around trying to find it before whoever was calling hung-up. What’s up, Mr. Stark?”

Tony sighed quietly in relief, lowering his hand and was glad he wasn’t having an asthma attack, and also that his earlier thought had been wrong. Hell, he could admit that it was downright ludicrous now that he really thought more of it. It was impossible for someone that could stop a freaking SUV barehanded to be the same one that had such a shy smile. Also, how would he have answered his phone when he’d just seen Spider-Man in the living room just now. The last he knew, Spider-Man couldn’t fly or have super speed, at least he didn’t think so.

He opened the door of the quiet room and heard the others laughing and joking and smiled, closing it again. No, it wasn’t possible to be in two places at once. Tony sat down on one of the comfortable couches with a soft groan. “Nothing much, kid. Just checking on you. Is Ned still over?” It wasn’t that late but it was starting to get there, and especially for a thirteen year old.

Tony heard Peter shuffling on his end. “Huh? Oh, no, his... mom came for him, c-cause they always do last minute shopping for school.” The teen started to grumble something to himself. “Mr. Stark, c-can I call you back? I was about to shower before you called and get ready for bed.”

The man shook his head even if the other couldn’t see it. “Nah, that’s alright, kiddie. Go on and shower and get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay, night, Mr. Stark,” he said distractedly, hanging up a moment later. Tony turned off his screen and contemplated the call, pressing the back of his phone against his mouth. He realized that tomorrow would be Peter’s last full day at SI for a while.

The boy would spend the morning with Tony and then have lunch with his intern friends and then the rest of it on the intern lab. At the end of the day they’d have a party for him, and Tony wondered if it’d seem weird to do something special for him. He remembered that he’d been star-struck with Nat, Clint and Steve, so maybe he’d invite the rest of the team to meet him. Maybe he could even convince Spider-Man to make an appearance. Peter would probably love that.

After deciding to ask the team to come by tomorrow, he stood to go back to the living area. They were all still playing, but it seemed Spider-Man had gotten tired to beating Clint, since now Sam and Clint were trying to show Vision how to play Mario Party. The young vigilante was perched on the back of the couch almost like some bird of prey, and he wondered how the couch hadn’t toppled already.

He obviously wasn’t paying too much attention to the others, since he turned almost as soon as Tony walked into the room, the lenses of his suit seeming to give him a wide-eyed look. Maybe he was just imagining things, since he didn’t seem nervous when he spoke. “Hey, Mr. Stark, where’d you go to?”

Tony waved him off. “Never mind that. Do you have any plans tomorrow?” the man asked him right away, hopefully he was free.

The other’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Sorry, I have work tomorrow all day,” he told him. He changed position so he was sitting normally, albeit still against the back of the couch.

He frowned at that. “I thought you were a student.”

The others stopped to listen when he said that. “You’re in school?!” Sam exclaimed incredulously. “How old are you?”

Spider-Man looked nervous, or so, Tony assumed since it was hard to get a read on his emotions when his face was masked. Although, the eyes had gotten pretty wide just now, so Tony would bet he was nervous.

“I go to ESU, but it’s summer... s-so, I have a part-time thing I go to until classes start.” They looked at him pointedly and he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not telling you how old am I, or where I work. Even if I were to say something like, a coffee shop, you guys would likely use that, my age and find me by triangulating the frequency of my patrol.”

 _’Huh, that’s a pretty smart way to do it, but you’d have to use a super computer... which I have,’_ he mused. He looked at the kid and saw the masked vigilante eyeing him, knowing that he knew what Tony was thinking. No wonder Tony had never been able to figure out his identity. It seemed that Spider-Man wasn’t all brawn, and there were some brains in that masked head of his.

“Alright, leave the kid alone,” Tony said as he stepped forward, placing a hand on the other’s bony shoulder. He made a mental note to feed the vigilante the next time, and every time he came for modifications. The damn kid hadn’t even finished the pizza he had brought with him, having gotten distracted by playing Mario Kart. “Before you go, don’t forget to take that monstrosity you left in my lab with you.”

Spider-Man was scowling at him, probably, as the lenses of his mask narrowed on him. “Mr. Stark, stop trashing my homemade suit,” he complained. “It’s the best I could do with my budget, since not all of us can be billionaires.”

Tony arched an amused brow at his whining. “I was actually talking about the pizza, but take that patchwork suit as well,” he snarked with a grin. The younger male huffed and turned on his heel as he stormed off, but it was ruined as everyone called out farewells and he stopped to wave and call a cheerful goodbye.

When the elevator door closed after the vigilante, Clint turned to look at Tony over the back of the couch. “Damn, Stark, you were supposed to find out his intentions, not adopt him. We’re going to have to start calling you Papa Stark at the rate you’re going.” The others all snickered and Tony just flipped them off, and turned to leave the communal area. He wanted to set up the lab for tomorrow.

“Oh, before I forget,” he said as he paused at the elevator doors, “I need you all here tomorrow at 4:30pm.” He threw a flippant wave over his shoulder, ignoring when they asked why he needed them to come. The man stepped into the elevator as it opened, and told FRIDAY to take him to his lab.

\- - - -

Peter was feeling great that day. The suit had been amazing! It was light and durable, was sure it could stop a blade or knife (not that he was going to let himself get stabbed on purpose to test it), and he could move so freely in it. Also, he’d managed to disable the “Training Wheels Protocol” that Mr. Stark had put in the suit with a simple override command he’d installed when the man hadn’t been looking. He was glad he hadn’t found it. And Karen was the best, even if she had absolutely no sense of humor and could be quite literal at times.

Then last night he got to hang out with the Avengers, had kicked Clint’s butt (along with everyone else) in Mario Kart. So, now Spider-Man was the official reigning champion, and they’d even invited him to something they called “Video Showdown”. While he was confused about what that was, he found himself getting excited about it. Him, Spider-Man, got to keep hanging out with the Avengers! Also, Mr. Stark had called him, Peter Parker, last night.

At first he had freaked when his phone had started vibrating in his pocket and the caller I.D. had read ‘Dr. Dad’, which meant Mr. Stark was calling Peter. He’d looked around frantically, seen that Tony was nowhere to be seen, so he must have stepped away to make the phone call. He’d shoved the controller into Sam’s hands and yelled that he had to use the bathroom before flipping over the back of the couch and practically sprinting for the bathroom.

“Damn, when you gotta go, you gotta go,” he’d heard Clint laugh before he closed the door of the bathroom.

He had remembered Tony saying that there were no cameras in there, nor was FRIDAY installed there. So, he’d felt confident about yanking his mask off and answering the phone call. Besides commenting about him being out of breath, Mr. Stark hadn’t suspected a thing.

Even so, when he’d returned, the vigilante having left the bathroom as soon as he’d hung up, he had turned to look at his face to make sure. Luckily, there hadn’t been a single thing to indicate that he knew Spider-Man and Peter were the same person. Although, he wondered why the man had called him anyways, but decided to take him at face value that he’d just been checking up on him.

So, his secret identity was secure and now he had a brand-spankin’ new suit, and Peter had never felt more confident about starting the new school year. And despite the hurt of not having Ben drop him off for his first day of school, he really thought that things were going to be good this year.

“Peter!” Sally cried when he walked into SI, the older young woman rushing over to hug the smaller teen. He always made a habit of eating with the rest of the interns at least two times a week, and while he loved working with Mr. Stark, he missed working with Jacob, Sally, Fernando and the rest of the interns. Which is why he was excited to work with them after lunch today.

As they cuddled, a few more interns came in, saw the cuddling duo and joined in and soon Peter found himself being squished from all angles. They all burst into laughter when the hugging orgy almost toppled over, and were forced to release their younger fellow intern. “Don’t forget you’re working with us after lunch,” Jacob called warningly, Peter wondering when he’d arrived.

Peter squawked when Fernando passed by, ruffling his curly hair as he went. “Y-yeah, I won’t!” the teenager called out, waving at them as he hurried toward Mr. Stark’s private elevator the man insisted he use since it’d deliver him directly into man’s lab. “Morning, Mr. Stark,” he chirped happily as he exited the elevator.

 

“Peter, you have to come work with us again,” Sally groaned as they started to pack up their things at the end of the day. “Dr. Stark can’t just steal you both days you’ll be working here. I say we hold a mutiny!” The other interns called out agreements as Peter giggled at this antics.

As they tossed out ideas, which included a petition which they’d all sign and turn into Miss Potts, they all piled onto the elevator. They were holding the party in one of the upstairs conference rooms on floor 67, having already cleared it with their supervisors. However, they were surprised when the elevator indicated that they’d pass 67, and by the time they noticed, they were moving past floor 73.

“Uh, Ms. Friday, we missed our floor,” Sally spoke up, reaching toward the doors as if they would open for her.

“My apologies, Ms. Franklin, but the boss has request the party be moved up to floor 96,” FRIDAY informed them. The other interns started to chatter excitedly about that, since they knew that that particular floor was the Avenger’s communal area. All of them were excited that this meant they were going to meet the Avengers... all but the youngest intern.

 _‘Fuuuck,’_ he mentally groaned.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than I would have liked, but one of my muses demanded it be cut off there. Pesky little demon-child.

**Chapter Twelve**

_“The peace I've known, floating along_  
_The deep green river with you and a song_  
_Is something like the peace I hope  
To make with you my whole life long...”_

—Little Deschutes, Laura Veirs

\- - - -

Peter wanted to crawl up the elevator wall to get away from this situation, maybe escape through the hatch in the ceiling. He was sure no one would notice, right? However, he knew this was not the best idea, and also cause he’d worn his best clothes and didn’t want to get them dirty. He’d worn them that day cause he knew there would be a party, and something about a certificate to authenticate his internship. So, while he’d worn his usual blue jeans, they were new, with a black shirt and a dark beige coat over that which had been bought a year ago, so it was a bit tight but not that noticeable. He was poor, okay?!

Well, they were getting better, and it was thanks to his employer... mentor? Oh right, he was trying to escape this situation that his mentor/ father figure (but don’t tell him that) had put him in. Because the Avengers had met Spider-Man, and now he was going to meet them as Peter?! He really needed to misuse his Spidey powers to get out of here.

“Come on, Pete,” Fernando said as he draped an arm over Peter’s shoulder and dragged him out of the elevator when the door opened, thus sealing his fate.

 _’Nooooo!’_ was Peter’s internal thought process as he forced himself to walk like a proper human being. He was low-key freaking out.

“Pete, you okay?” Sally asked him with a worried look, her blonde hair as always pulled back into a ponytail. “You look pale...”

Okay, he was high-key freaking out.

“Yeah,” he squeaked, cleared his throat and tried again. “Yeah, I’m fine, Sal. Just nervous cause... the Avengers, ya know?”

Jacob moved past him as he bumped his shoulder against his. “You work with one. Are you saying you haven’t met them?”

Peter scowled at the dark skinned, black haired twenty-one year old, cleared his throat as he shrugged. “I mean... I met Cap, Hawkeye and Widow, but not the rest.”

Jacob stared at him in disbelief. “Oh, is that all? You just met Captain freaking America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow.” He shook his head. “I’m so jealous and not talking to you again.”

Peter’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why?!” he sputtered. When the other just held his hand out and walked off, Peter hurried after him. “Jaaaacob!” he whined, pulling at the back of his shirt, the older boy trying to hold back his laughter. Sally and Fernando, and the rest of the interns laughing as they follow behind them, momentarily forgetting they were about to meet the Avengers.

They forget until they walked into the communal area and the Avengers are... right.... THERE! A few of the interns start to freak out, some shrinking away, others practically vibrating as if about to pounce on the heroes. While said heroes are looking at the group of assembled eleven people with varying expressions of wariness, suspicion and confusion. Captain America steps up and a girl almost faints, one of the newer interns that Peter can’t remember whether her name is Alex or maybe Alanna, and one of the older interns catches her.

“Uh...” Steve says, unsure on how to proceed after a teenager practically swoons at the sight of him. Then he spots a familiar face in the crowd. “Oh, Peter!”

The mentioned intern, not necessarily the smallest, but definitely the youngest looks trapped. All the others turn to look at him and Peter wanted to shrink and disappear into the floor. “Oh... hey.. C-Captain Rogers, sir,” the thirteen year old greets, waving hesitantly. He see the Widow and Clint turn to look at him. “Clint, Nat.”

“Can you tell me what’s going on, son?” he asks the boy, wondering where Stark is and why all these young people are up here.

“I can answer that,” Tony says as he walks in, hands in the pockets of his pants. He is dressed in dark blue slacks that would likely look black in a lower light. He has on a black shirt with some kind of drawing that may or maybe not be a duck judging by the word Duck that can barely be seen. He has on a purple jacket shot through with white, and his usual glasses which are purple to match his coat.

“We’re all having a party to celebrate Peter’s return to school, completing the summer program that labels him my official intern...” He smirked as he looks at Peter, taking something out of his pocket and pointing it at the teen. “And his upcoming birthday.” He pulls it, and Peter realizes it’s a party popper moments before it releases with a pop and the boy is covered in confetti and streamers.

Then she’s suddenly being surrounded by the rest of the interns, all trying to hug him at once as he squeaks. Jacob is demanding why he hadn’t said his birthday was coming up, and Sally is kissing one cheek and Fernando the other as Peter flushes so hard his face is almost purple.

Peter is about to say fuck it and use his web-shooters to get away and to hell with the consequences when someone whistles shrilly to get their attention. “Let the kid breathe, geez!” He realizes its Sam Wilson, and he thinks he might love him when he’s released and he sighs in relief. The man has pushed through the other ten interns and holds him up when he looks a bit shaken. “You alright, kid?”

He can only nod, the other interns apologizing profusely but he only smiles wanly and waves them off. “It’s alright, just... no more ambushing me, yeah?” Sally and the other girls, a total of four with her, giggle at his blush.

“Okay, let’s take some pictures and then get this party started,” Tony speaks again. He drags boy over to the side, standing close to a wall that has ‘Stark Industries behind them, and pulls out a framed certificate from somewhere and hands it to Peter.

“Oh, I got my phone!” Sally says as she rushes over and starts to snap several pictures as Peter beams at the camera, a small, yet proud smirk on Tony’s face. Peter gets a mischievous look on his face and lifts his right hand and gives Tony bunny ears, mouth open in a wide grin as Sally and the rest of the interns with their cameras take pictures. Tony seems to notice this and his smirk widens and also gives Peter bunny ears, a serious expression on his face that makes his pose look more ridiculous.

“Um, isn’t someone going to tell them that the certificate is upside down?” A younger male intern fake whispers. Peter laughs when he hears this, rights the certificate, and laughs again when Tony gives the camera a lopsided, funny looking grin.

“Oh, use my phone!” Peter says, rushing forward and handing Sally his old, crapy iPhone and then rushed back to Tony, but this time got on Tony’s right side now. By that point Steve, Natasha and Clint that are more familiar with Peter have walked over and Natasha took out her phone to take a picture for herself, Tony looking toward her and when he was distracted Peter lifts his hand and gives him bunny ears again.

“Alright, enough pictures,” Tony groused as he lightly smacked Peter’s arm away as the soon to be fourteen year old giggled. He bounded over to Sally and looked at the picture, and grinned. Peter was going to definitely print that and frame it. If he decided to put it on his desk at home, well, no one had to know. “Now it’s time for pizza and then cake.”

Peter is shocked once again. “You got me a cake, Mr. Stark?’ he squeaked. He bounded off toward the kitchen in search of the cake, and the other interns laughed at his childish enthusiasm as they followed at a slower pace.

While Peter was usually enthusiastic, it was over science and working on a project. To see him getting excited about having a birthday cake was nice and refreshing. He really was everyone’s little brother, but judging by the fond smile on Tony’s face when he saw the sheer joy on Peter’s face at seeing the expertly made cake made it obvious that he saw the boy as more of a son.

“Woah! Mr. Stark, this is... you didn’t have to do all this for me,” Peter told him, but he was still grinning from ear to ear.

“Of course I did, kid. It’s not everyday you turn twelve, was it?”

They all laughed as Peter pouted. “Fourteen!” Peter shouted, his voice cracking, and they all once more ribbed the teenager good naturedly.

All of them spread out around the living room, taking pizza and the chips and other snacks that were spread out around the table. Sally called him over and she pinned a safety pin to his shirt along with a twenty dollar bill as she winked at him. Then Peter found himself being called from group to group, and soon he had a descent amount of money, since the interns hadn’t known it was his birthday so all they could give him was money. Although, this way he’d be able to buy himself whatever he wanted.

The Avengers had even given him some, which Peter had taken with a blush, having already seen that it was just better to just accept it and not to worry about it. Although, as Natasha came up to him, she handed him two tens and a scrap of paper. “What’s this?” Peter asked curiously, opening it and finding a number written on there.

“My phone number, маленький,” she told him. “If you ever need... help, you call me and I’ll come if I’m near.” She raised her eyebrows pointedly, and he must have looked confused because she elaborated. “So whatever happened to you last time, doesn’t happens again.”

 _Oh!_ She was talking about when he was supposedly jumped, which is what he’d told Mr. Stark, Nat, Steve and Clint that day in the medbay when his face had been all bruised up. “T-thank you, Nat,” he said, touched that she’d be willingly to help him. Although, he knew he couldn’t call her as Spider-Man, since no one was supposed to know about that. He figured that he could call if he ever got into a dangerous situation as Peter and couldn’t change into his suit without giving away his identity.

She gave his cheek a caress and moved away, sitting with Clint at the couch. The rest of the interns had gotten over their shyness and had started to interact with the other Avengers. As for Peter, he’d stopped freaking out and had to admit that this had been a rather nice day.

Mr. Stark came over, tossing him a small package that Peter fumbled for a moment before managing to catch it between his chest. He had felt his Spidey-sense tingle the slightest bit, but realized it wasn’t in danger. So, to not reveal his abilities, he’d pretended to have a clumsy moment as he struggled to catch it. And judging by Tony’s amused smile, it had worked. “W-what’s this, Mr. Stark?”

“Well, Aunt Hottie said I couldn’t give you anything too expensive or elaborate, so I made you something.”

Peter was curious as he undid the ribbon that covered the box and it opened up to show that it had been holding the paper in place. Inside was a small box that usually held a piece of jewelry, and when he opened it, Peter saw that it was a bracelet of some kind, but it wasn’t like any bracelet he had seen before. As he ran his hand over it, he realized it was made from titanium alloy, the same thing Mr. Stark’s suits were made from. “Awesome bracelet, Mr. Stark. Thank you.”

Tony snorted and stepped forward, snapping it in place onto his wrist. “It’s more than a bracelet, kid. I’ve been working on nanotechnology, trying to incorporate it into my suit. So far I haven’t been able to incorporate it for combat purposes yet.” He tapped on the bracelet and Peter watched in amazement as it formed over his hand like a glove, going down his arm and starting to cover his shoulder. Mr. Stark stopped it before it could go any further. “This will activate in case you’re in danger of any kind and will form a layer of protection around your body. It was easier to make since it only offers minimum protection and has no weapons, and you’re smaller than I am.”

The youth was looking at him with wide eyes. “Mr. Stark... you gave me Iron Man armor?” he squeaked in shock, not knowing why he would do such a thing.

He shrugged. “It’s not really Iron Man armor... just protective armor.” Mr. Stark said it like it was such a simple thing and Peter seemed even more confused. “It’s connected to FRIDAY, and if it activates, I’ll know and be able to find you.”

Peter was still gaping at the bracelet. “But... why would you give me this?” He didn’t understand why Tony would give him this. Peter knew he was the man’s personal intern, had gotten them a new apartment and was paying for his school, but this... this was beyond that. This is something the man would do... for someone he cared about, wanted to protect, and someone.... well, not for someone you just considered a simple intern.

Tony sniffed self-consciously. “Cause... if you hang around me long enough, you’re bound to become a target, kid. I don’t want to be responsible if something happens to you,” he said with a shrug. While that was understandable, had explained this already to his Aunt, but this was something more. This was protective armor, for goodness sake’s! You didn’t just give anyone this kind of gift!

“Mr. Stark...” Peter mumbled, eyes squinted on his face. The man was avoiding his gaze and he sighed. He always seemed to get like this when emotional stuff was talked about, and it was almost like when he’d started crying in the medbay that one time. The teen didn’t want him to distance himself, was worried about pushing him, and that he might distance himself or something . “... thank you, Mr. Stark.”

The billionaire cleared his throat and gave a sharp nod.

They were interrupted as Sally shouted. “It’s time for the cake. Pete, come here.” She waved him over, and after another smile at the man, he hurried over. “I found the candles,” Sally she said as she showed off the candles shaped like a 1 and a 4 to show that Mr. Stark did indeed know he was turning 14 that day. She pushed both candles into the cake closest to the top, and then used a lighter that was also in the drawer to light them. “Happy birthday to you!” the young woman started to sing and the others soon joined in.

“Happy birthday, dear Peter!”

“Petey!” Fernando called out, and Peter swallowed emotionally since the last person to call him that was his uncle.

“Happy birthday to you!” they finished the song, and Peter leaned down to blow out the candles.

Fernando nudged him. “Take a bite, Pete!”

“Bite it! Bite it!” all the interns started to chant suddenly.

He knew what was going to happen but decided to get it over with, leaning down to bite into the cake. As soon as he did, several hands shoved his head down so his face was completely mushed into the cake.

Steve who was not use to this tradition was worried as he saw this. “Is... that normal?” the super soldier asked Natasha, who was closest to him. Steve came from a time where there could never be any waste of food. Also, they’d never really had any kind of birthday celebration, since he supposed they had never been as close as some might be lead to believe. They did Friday nights and their video challenges, but something like birthday celebrations were more personal.

This almost seemed like bridging the distance between them, that maybe they could become more than close teammates. It was surprising that it was Tony ‘only cares about himself’ Stark that took the first step to cross it. Although, Natasha had quickly gotten over that view of him after watching him with the kid. He’d never really been this way, the way he was when he was with Peter. That’s the reason she’d given the boy her number, so if he ever found himself in danger than she wanted to help. Natasha didn’t want Tony to lose the person that made him like this. Besides, she liked him, he seemed like a good kid.

“Yes, so expect to have your own face smashed into a cake when you turn 98 next year,” the blonde haired woman said with a smirk in his direction. The man rolled his eyes at that, since they all knew that biologically he was 31 but they always liked to rib him over his technical age.

Meanwhile, Tony chuckled as he handed the boy a few napkins. He reached out with a cheeky grin and flicked a finger over a particular large piece of frosting on the edge of his nose before bringing it to his mouth. “They did a good job on it,” he said. Peter giggled before his tongue flicked out and licked a bit of frosting close to his mouth. Tony grinned and ruffled his hair. “Go get cleaned up and then you can come properly eat a piece of cake.”

Peter went off to use the sink in the kitchen to clean up, the sounds of the other’s chatter faded slightly. He turned on the faucet and ducked down, and his Spidey-sense tingled to alert him of someone entering while he was bent over splashing water onto his face. He groped around for the towel on the kitchen, jolting when a warm hand pressed it against his own. Peter’s eyes opened, blinking as water dripped into them and saw Wanda Maximoff staring at him quietly. “Hi,” he squeaked, face heating up a moment later.

“Hello... Spider-Man,” she said.

The teenager felt the color drain from his wet face.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-Man gets a surprise visitor...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finish this chapter. Stupid muses lol I know where I want to go with this and what more or less I want the ending to be. I’ve decided to do a sequel as well, and as always, these crazy muses have already started giving me inspiration for that... before I’ve even finished this story. So annoying >_<

**Chapter Thirteen**

_“We were runnin' onto something_  
And we didn't say forever but it's all we wanted  
You were so in love with simple things  
And now we're searching for the fire, dripping kerosene  
I've been lovin' more, livin' less  
Off of highs and lows, so obsessed

 _Couldn't get nothin'_  
But we're never runnin' out, we'll be  
Free spirits, free spirits  
Can you hear me calling?  
Oh, it's all or nothing  
When you're free spirits, free spirits...”

—Free Spirits - Khalid

\- - - -

Wanda Maximoff knew that her place in the Avengers wasn’t as secure as Clint might lead her to believe. After all, no matter how much inviting they were, she knew the things she had done. It was over a revenge she wasn’t even sure she had a right to get now. When they had volunteered to get powers, they’d said they had done it to help Sokovia, but it had never been about that. They’d done it for revenge, plain and simple, on a man that now he realized had no hand in what had happened to them. There had been many under the table deals and even imitation weapons made.

Before she had been mindless in her need for revenge, and then they (her and Pietro) realized what it would cost. It would be much innocent bloodshed and among those would be their own. So, they had turned on Ultron, and then her brother had died saving Clint. She might have blamed Clint for that, but that would have been a disservice to her brother’s sacrifice. Instead, she had helped destroy what was left of Ultron, and then joined the Avengers to make amends.

It was Stark that was the most opposed to her joining, and she couldn’t really blame him. She had let her thirst for revenge blind her to her own actions, which were the same as those that had killed their parents. The one thing that still haunted her and likely always would, was what she had caused in Johannesburg. She was sure nothing she ever did would ever make-up for the lives that had been lost that day, but she was going to try her damnest to do so. The woman was fully prepared to give her life to ensure that there was no more loss of life because of her.

Now she turned her attention back to the boy in the kitchen as he gaped at her.

“W-what?” Peter asked, trying to laugh, but it came out flat. “What’re you talking about? I’m not Spider-Man.” His mind started to run through different ideas on how to deflect, at the same time as he went over what he could have said or done to give Wanda this idea. Then he wondered if he could somehow fake a Spider-Man sighting while in the tower to avoid suspicion, and _another_ small part of his mind was flailing happily, because the Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff was talking to him!

Wanda winced and lifted a hand to her head. “Your mind is too much and it hurts my head. You, Stark and Spider-Man have the same frequency. However, I doubt he is Spider-Man.”

Peter frowned. “You’re reading my mind?!” He didn’t know how to feel about that. Well, since she’d figured out his secret identity (even if he had denied it), he didn’t like it at all.

She shook her head. “No, I am not reading your thoughts, but I can feel people’s minds. They are distinctive from on another, and it’s a way to sense if a anyone has bad intentions toward myself or the team.” Wanda lifted her hand, and that’s when Peter noticed she had a disposable plate on her hand with a piece of his birthday cake, and it was an almost ridiculous sight if Peter didn’t feel trapped right now. “So, I’m basically a human lie detector.”

The soon to be fourteen year old watched as she cut off a piece of the cake and brought it to her mouth. Peter didn’t know what he was supposed to say to her statement, but she’d just basically told him he was lying about being Spider-Man. And he didn’t know if she wanted him to admit being the vigilante or not.

Peter wasn’t going to admit it though, because he was sure there were cameras in here (his enhanced eyesight helped with that), and if FRIDAY knew, than Mr. Stark would know. So, he took a breath and completely wiped his mind of all thought. It was his mind and Peter had learned yoga next to May, so it wasn’t too hard.

The woman’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “The buzzing of your mind is gone,” she said, sounding impressed. “Only Stark’s been able to do that before.” She could still feel it, but there were no more surface thoughts she’d been able to glean before. Of course, she could easily push past any type of defense he put up and get into his mind, but she didn’t want to do that. She’d decided never to use her powers on an unwilling victims anymore, to never hurt someone again.

And although she might suspect the kid of being Spider-Man, it didn’t meant she thought he was dangerous. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to see the way the kid flashed those adoring eyes on Tony, and the rest of the Avengers, but mostly Tony. She also saw the way Stark looked at the kid. He loved him, a look she hadn’t seen since her own father had been alive.

“So, since you’ve silenced your mind, will you say out loud what your purpose is. Why are you getting close to Stark, to the Avengers?” Her eyes glowed a bit with the power that existed inside her, gifted to her by the mind stone. “I’ve lost a brother, and I won’t stand to lose anyone else.” Sure Peter looked harmless, almost like a puppy, but even puppies had teeth. He had gotten close to Stark, too fast and far too close.

Peter became alarmed by her non-verbal threat. “I-I just w-want to build stuff!” he blurted in a rush. She arched a brow and he tripped over himself to further explain. “I b-built a robot that repairs structures a-after what happened in Sokovia. I want to m-make things that repair, that heal, and not that hurt.”

He fumbled in his pockets for one of his web cartridges, a different one than his usual ones, and showed it to her. “Spider-Man uses a modified version of my glue to make his webs. So, I thought I could do the same to make a better blood clotting substance that could be used by paramedics and even police officers to use in an emergency. Even doctors would be able to use this during a surgery to stop hemorrhages.” He knew he was babbling, but he was really nervous. “It could maybe... l-like be available on the open market... to save regular people in bad situations.”

Peter handed her the small canister of the newly improved medical webbing, which he’d planned on showing Mr. Stark after the party. He knew that Stark Industries was a technological conglomerate, but they also sold prosthesis. So, he figured medical webbing wouldn’t be too far out of their area. Peter wanted to study chemistry, but not only that. He wanted to study the fields of applied science, physics, perhaps biology, engineering most definitely, and mathematics mostly went hand in hand with engineering, and where would he be if he didn’t study mechanics? Every single one of those would let him be able to help others, but he wanted to study them all.

When he finished his education, he wanted to work for SI, and besides he knew that Dr. Banner had worked for Mr. Stark, and he was a physicist. So, he could still work for Stark Industries in the future, but for now he was just an intern.

“So, you are taking advantage of Stark to make your webbing?” she asked him.

Peter sputtered. “What? No! I have a scholarship with SI! It’s part of my internship! Mr. Stark came to my house to offer it to me and everything!” He shifted nervously, realizing he’d practically been shouting at the woman. It was only a relief that the others hadn’t heard, since someone had turned on some music, and he was sure the others would come get him before long, or they’d notice Wanda wasn’t there. “I want to work _for_ Mr. Stark someday.”

Wanda frowned, turning over this in her mind. “We did not have many scholarships where I come from. No... internships that could give poor, orphaned children a better education. There was never an opportunity to become something better, at least something that wasn’t a soldier, or a weapon.” Her eyes had moved to gaze out of the windows, which took half of the western side of the wall and the light of the sun moving steadily toward the horizon flooded the room.

She seemed to be a million miles away, or perhaps thinking of something that had happened a lifetime ago. Peter had a feeling she spoke of this because it was how her own childhood had been.

“Well, why can’t you do that now?” he asked her curiously.

Wanda seemed to snap out of her musings to look at him in surprise. “нет это глупо,” she said, inhaled and tried again. “It is foolish. I am too old to think of such things. Who would give a scholarship to one such as me?” she said with a laugh that he could tell was forced.

Peter thought that her age wasn’t the issue, and that perhaps it was the things she’d been forced to do to survive that harsh childhood. “I don’t think it’s foolish. And who wouldn’t want to give you a scholarship? You’re the Scarlet Witch, an Avenger! A hero!” She seemed surprised, at a loss for words, so he continued. “Besides, anyone can be anything they want to be if they set their minds to it, and I bet yours is the strongest ever! You can be anything!”

Wanda was looking at him with a baffled expression, clearly not knowing how to respond to his words. “You are a strange child; naive and optimistic, and clearly not the Spider-Man,” she said slowly. She dumped the plate into the trash can, Peter not even noticing when she’d finished the cake. “And clearly pose no threat.”

As he watched her walk out of the kitchen, Peter wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved or offended by her words. “Well, I’ll just take that as a compliment,” he decided, since now his identity was safe.

Tony came to get him shortly after that, wondering what was taking him so long.

\- - - -

The first week was mostly spent getting into the swing of things, no pun intended. So, he had no time to patrol as the teachers seemed to want to make sure they hadn’t forgotten everything they’d learned during the last two months of lazing around. They’d piled the work on them, as well as homework. It wasn’t until the weekend that he was finally able to go out, having finished his weekend homework Friday afternoon.

It was his typical thing, stopping petty crimes, getting cats out of trees (or rooftops), and helping old ladies cross the street. He’d dedicated a bit more time to walk an old, half-blind Mexican lady home as he’d carried her grocery bags, and she’d given him some candy called ‘Lucas pelucas, Tarindo’. He’d shrugged and had tried it. His eyes had widened under his mask at the taste, tangy and a bit spicy, but really really good. He’d eaten the whole thing almost on the spot.

As he was swinging along, thinking of stopping and getting a hotdog from a street vendor, he saw a bus moving erratically heading in the direction of a busy intersection. He frowned and flipped on the air to change direction, activating his webshooters with a thwip, the air whipping by as his slender body swung toward the bus. He let go as he hit the back of the bus, hearing some the passengers shouting inside. The vigilante knew something was wrong now and crawled up onto the roof and toward the front of the bus. He looked through the driver’s side and saw the driver slumped against the steering wheel. There was one passengers banging on the plexiglass barrier that shielded the drivers from assault, but it wasn’t giving way.

Spider-Man lifted his head, seeing that they were barring down on the busy intersection quickly, some cars in front of them trying to get out of the way, but winced as they hit a small car that was pushed into oncoming traffic. He had to think fast, to stop the bus and the driver.

“Karen, activate web-grenade,” he shouted as he flipped onto the front of the bus. He aimed and shot several times, and several strands of webbing were launched at the buildings they were passing, and the superhero grabbed them as he planted his feet and pulled. A moment later he felt the pressure as he groaned, holding on as the tires skidded against the pavement with the smell of burning rubber. The bus jerked as it was pulled back from it’s forward momentum, the tires making it bounce and it put further strain on the young hero’s arms as he yelled, leaning back as much as he could until his back met the windshield, where it cracked under the pressure of his body.

Then suddenly the pressure was gone as Spider-Man groaned, his numb fingers letting go as he lay against the cracked windshield, breathing heavily for a moment. He blinked, the lenses of the mask emulating his baffled expression when he realized they were in the air and surrounded by a red energy. Spider-Man looked over the side of the bus and saw a familiar woman on the side-walk surrounded by the same red glow.

It was Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. “Spider! Did you need a hand?” she asked, accent distinctive.

He was stunned for a moment before he nodded. “Thanks!” Spider-Man called, and went to the door where he forced them open. He swung inside, the passengers standing aside as the masked hero forced open the barrier easily, but was baffled on how to switch off the bus.

“I got it,” a man said, and Spider-Man stepped aside so the man could shift the unfamiliar gears, and then removed the keys. As soon as the engine shut off, Wanda set the bus gently down. The vigilante lifted the man out of his seat after unbuckling his seat belt, having Karen scan him.

 _‘Peter, this man has suffered a massive cardio infarction and has stopped breathing. I’ve already contacted an ambulance but he needs immediate CPR. I wil guide you in how to perform it.’_ He nodded as he pulled his mask up to his nose, kneeling next to the man, starting chest compressions as gently as he could so as not to crush his rib cage.

“I can help!” a Hispanic woman yelled as she pushed through the crowd. “I’m an EMT.”

Spider-Man was relieved to see her, the woman already rolling up her sleeves. “Thank you. Could you do the chest compressions, I’m afraid to crush his rib cage with my strength,” he told her quietly.

The woman only nodded and positioned herself, quickly counting off eight compressions to the beat of a song. “Ah ah ah ah, staying alive, staying alive,” she grunted. As she finished, the teen hero breathed into his mouth, the man’s head tipped back as she pinched his nose and made sure to cover his entire mouth with his own. They continued like this for several minutes as the people gathered around them watched on.

She continued to repeat the song as she pumped his chest, her look of concentration giving Spidey the bit of calm that kept him from straying into panic the longer the man remained unresponsive.

“No pulse,” she panted when she check his throat, beads of sweat on her forehead due to her exertion to get the man to start breathing. “We need to get his heart to start up.” She went back to start up the chest compressions again.

 _’Peter, the ambulance is twenty minutes away,’_ Karen informes him. He knew it would be too late for him by then.

“I have my taser-webs,” he suddenly remembered. “If I charge it just enough, the electricity could jumpstart his heart.”

“You’ll have to... get it just right...” the EMT puffed as she did the next eight compressions. “You could damage his heart otherwise.” The man that had turned off the bus had taken over breathing for Spider-Man who had forgotten to roll down his mask, so his lips twisting in a worried frown was seen by all those gathered there.

“I have my AI calculating it right now,” he told her. “There’s not a universal amount that can revive a heart, but a standard defibrillator starts at 200 volts and goes up to 1,700 volts.” He was popping out the almost empty cartridge, since he wouldn’t have time to change it in the middle of this.

 _’I’ve finished my calculations, Peter,’_ she told him, displaying her math on the screen of his mask. He nodded to indicate that he’d come up with the same thing. _’Change confirmed, switching the voltage now.’_

Spider-Man stopped suddenly before he could start. “Wait, I can’t do it here, Karen. The bus is metal and will act as a conduit,” he said, looking around at all the people surrounding them.

The EMT has paused to let her helper to breathe for the man, shoulders heaving with exhaustion. “We need to get him outside,” she confirmed. “We can’t stop CPR. It’s the only thing keeping him alive.” She leaned back over him, but still looking at the masked hero on what they should do.

The teen hero didn’t know what to do, feeling as young as he was in that moment and unable to think of what to do. He had to do something!

“Allow me,” a voice said and they turned to see the Scarlet Witch at the door of the bus. She lifted her hands and they glowed, and it started to surround the man. “I’m going to lift him slowly and keep him level. Move with him,” she instructed. She waited for the time that the breaths were being given and kept his body horizontal as she levitated him until he was at a comfortable level where the woman EMT could still comfortably perform the chest compressions.

Soon, she had him settled outside, and the two people administrating CPR having been able to move with him, a bit awkwardly, but never once stopping the life saving technique.

Spider-Man inhaled shakily as he fiddled with his webshooters, knowing he couldn’t get this wrong. “We gotta get this right, Karen... no mistakes,” he muttered quietly to his AI.

 _’The probability of failure is 0.0002 percent,’_ she told him. She didn’t need to since he had already done the math in his head, but it reassured him having her checking the math as well.

“Here goes nothing... clear,” he said as he lifted his arm, and when the two people performing CPR had moved back he pressed the button to shoot a web. Usually it detached and then the charge went off that was within the webbing, and that way it wouldn’t short-circuit or burn out his webshooters accidentally, but he’d changed it so the web remained attached so he could send another shock if the first one didn’t work.

When the web hit the man’s body, it convulsed for a moment before it went still when Spider-Man stopped the charge.

“No pulse,” the EMT said after checking his pulse. She started another round of CPR with the man breathing, doing two sets before she stopped to check for a pulse again. She shook her head when she felt nothing, the vigilante feeling sick that he would have to shock him again. Even so, when they backed away, he sent another shock through the man’s body.

When she shook her head once more, the young vigilante grit his teeth and upped the voltage. “Clear,” he said through clenched teeth, and shocked him a third time as tears started to gather in his eyes. He didn’t think could stand it if the man didn’t make it.

“I got a pulse!” the EMT cried out joyfully. The other passengers shouted and cheered, and some came to clamp a hand on his shoulder or shake his hand. As for the young hero, he wished he could take his mask off and wipe his face that felt damp. Instead, he rolled down his mask all the way, already planning on getting home as quickly as possible.

 _’Good job, Peter,’_ Karen murmured in his ear.

The ambulance arrived ten minutes after that, having been detained due to traffic, and the driver had regained consciousness by that point, still weak and disoriented. The EMT, whose name he’d learned was Rio, came over and shook his hand.

“Thank you for your help,” he sighed, since he didn’t think he’d have been as calm as he had been without her there.

The Hispanic woman nodded. “You did a pretty good job,” she complimented.

Spider-Man grinned underneath his mask as he gave a nod, and gave her a salute before he webbed himself away before the police could question him. As he swung away, he saw Wanda Maximoff being surrounded by the rest of the passengers and receiving the same treatment as Spider-Man had, being patted and getting her hand shaken. He grinned at the stunned but pleased look on her face.

 

He’s not even surprised when a few of the Avengers start to sporadically show up during his patrols over the next few weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me on my instagram: [@phiodmuse](https://www.instagram.com/phiodmuse/)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally over! Of course they’ll be a sequel... why can’t I just finish a story and for there to be no sequel? *groans* Thanks to everyone that’s followed this story and hopefully I can start on the sequel soon. It probably won’t be until later when I’ve written about half of He Makes Him Happy. Enjoy!
> 
> The song on this chapter is Home by Vince Staples. The format is a bit different for this chapter. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! Much love to my reviewers! 😘

**Chapter Fourteen**

_This morning I woke up_  
_in a fortress of distortion..._  
_I'm at war with my emotions,_  
_I'm at war with.. they enforce me..._

\- - - -

Special Agent Frederic Hayes sighed as he carefully walked into the police station, seeing the looks he was getting. Well, it couldn’t be helped. It was a federal crime and that meant it was the FBI’s jurisdiction. While he could understand the police officers want to get justice for the officers that may have been killed or injured in this attack, he also knew that they’d be compromised in the investigation. Frederic would just make sure he caught the sons of bitches that had done this.

He moved toward the Police Captain, seeing the expression on the man’s face. This was not going to be a good day. Hell, it hadn’t been a good month, since this was the fifth police precinct that had been hit. While it was the first one in here in Brooklyn, he was sure it wouldn’t be the last one, since judging from the last attacks, the first two had been in the same surrounding area before the person, or persons had switched to another state, and hit two precincts again before moving on.

It was a hopeful belief that they could catch these criminals before they moved on. The guns they had stolen from the other four locations and here had likely already been sold, or likely even used in some of the attacks on the police stations. Every police station in the state of New York had been warned of an imminent attack, and so had the Avengers. Usually, they dealt with large scale attacks, but this had grown to a nationwide thing, with three separate states being attacked.

At least this way, the Avengers would be alert and thus be able to get to a place being targeted and offer some kind of help. The situation with them and their ‘missions’ was tense as of late, due to growing support for the Accords, which was a very complicated document that ultimately lead to enhanced individuals being controlled. While there were revisions being done, it would be better to scrape it and rewrite the whole thing.

Hayes wasn’t enhanced in the latest, nor was he a mutant, which was a growing thing; people born with mutations. However, he was a descent human being, and even he could tell this was wrong. So, he could understand why the Avengers were lying low at the moment, trying not to shift the public’s opinion toward them and those like them in a negative way.

There were still vigilantes working the streets though, like Daredevil in Hell’s Kitchen, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones who had no secret identity, and one known as Iron Fist. There was also the Spider-Man, but there wasn’t much known about him, and he was a low key hero that mostly helped old ladies cross the street and stop petty crimes. Although, he’d stopped a Grand Theft Auto once or twice, and that was a felony.

“Captain Jones,” he greeted the man, shaking his hand in a show of politeness. It was good to show that the FBI weren’t total assholes just muscling their way into their territory. Special Agent Hayes just wanted to stop whoever these individuals were before anything more major happened. “Were there any casualties?”

The man sighed and looked to where Hayes had entered, a large hole blasted through the front doors. “I lost three officers today, Agent Hayes, and five more are fighting for their lives in the nearby hospital. You know my stance on anyone taking over an investigation that clearly belongs to us, but I’m willing to work with you to prevent anymore good men losing their lives to these maniacs.”

Hayes nodded slowly, and while normally he would tell him he had it covered, he needed their help. Their forces were being stretched thin at the moment, since there were many police stations in Manhattan alone, never mind the whole state of New York. So, some help would be most welcome.

“I would appreciate any cooperation you can give me, Captain Jones.” He moved to walk off before he paused. “The officers that lost their lives, can you tell me their names?”

Captain Jones hadn’t taken his eyes away from the destruction, rubble every where and some with drying splatters or what Hayes could only imagine was blood. Now, the man turned his haunted eyes to look at him, a few scapes on his face and dust and blood on his suit. “Sargent Marni Gomez, Officer Erik Peterson, and Officer Jefferson Davis.”

The man inhaled and looked back at the scene, of the forensic team taking pictures and cataloging anything that might look like some kind of explosive, or that had been burned or damaged. “I know the names of every single officer I’ve ever lost, Hayes. They’ve all been excellent police officers, and these weren’t any different. They have... had family. Marni had just come back from maternity leave, gave birth to a little girl. Erik had taken over custody of his two nephews after their parents died in a car crash two years ago, and Jeff has a thirteen year old son.”

He clenched his hand into a fist at his side, the fury and grief clear on his face. “You find these sons of bitches, Hayes, it makes no never mind whether they’re alive or dead. You bring justice to my fallen men and woman.”

Hayes swallowed, feeling the knot of emotion in his throat at seeing the Captain so affected by the loss of his officers, and only imagining the grief the families would feel. It would be ten times worse for them than what Captain Jones was feeling.

“I will do everything in my power to bring them in. To give them justice,” Hayes promised.

Jones didn’t say anymore, only nodding before he turned and went back into his office. The door had been knocked off its hinges, so it was clear to see the man take out the bottle of bourbon he had hidden in his desk. Hayes couldn’t say he blamed him, since he needed a fucking drink as well.

But there would be time for that later. For now, he had a job to do and he couldn’t fail at it, not this time.

\- - - -

_Tryna fight for what's right and got sidetracked..._

_Where your mind at?_

\- - - -

Steve smiled a bit as he watched the slender red and blue figure flip out of the way of Falcone’s attack, his freaky sixth sense warning him. He hadn’t been able to explain it to them, only that he could sense when he was in danger and able to avoid it, and sometimes his body just reacted instinctively. It wasn’t always perfect and was likely still learning to fight with it, and that was seen with his fight with Black Widow.

The young man, whom hadn’t unmasked before them, ended up on the mat most of the time during their sparring session. Natasha told them that he showed promise, and that was especially true when he learned and used her famous attack, which was flipping around a person, hooking her legs around their neck and flipping them to the floor so she ended up standing. He thought he saw a half a smile when he first used it on Clint, the man not expecting the attack from the smaller male.

It had been quite a laugh as Clint stared up at the ceiling with a dumbfounded expression. “I’m so glad I’m retiring soon,” he groaned as he’d gotten up, “cause I’m getting entirely too old for this.” Afterwards, the man had started to treat Spider-Man more like a teammate instead of a kid in their last few sessions before he had left, back to the farm, to Laura and the kids. The rest of them had stepped up their training of him, since he was mostly on his own out on the streets and wanted to make sure he had more in his arsenal than instinct and his freaky Spider-senses.

“We’re more like doting older brothers and sisters than teammates,” Sam had commented, watching as Spider-Man and Natasha had trained during one of their many sessions. Steve had to agree, since he had grown fond of the kid, despite not knowing who he was under the mask. It didn’t really matter that much anymore.

Today, he was training against Wanda, which mostly consisted of her levitating and throwing things at him as he dodged as quickly as he could. His senses had saved him from attacks in the back, but there had been very near misses and some hits that led Steve to believe that he needed more training with that part of his abilities.

The few times he had shown up to a difficult fight with more emerging super baddies (such as Dr. Doom and a freaky man with four metal arms), the younger Spider had worked almost flawlessly with them. With the Accords looming on the horizon, they’d been forced to use more force than usual to take them down before too much damage happened, or God-forbid, any casualties happened.

As he thought of the Accords, Steve could understand why the other hadn’t unmasked yet, since he was still young (they pegged him at 19 or 20 years old, definitely no younger than 18). It was hard to tell with the voice scrambler that Tony had put in the kid’s suit. The way things were going with the Accords, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. So, that way the kid could hide in plain sight if they started to demand enhanced individuals get registered, or worse, tagged like beasts.

Steve’s face twisted in a frown at the thought, knowing that he would fight that if it came down to it. They hadn’t been given a copy of the Accords as of yet, so they didn’t know what they entailed. Also, between going and seeing a quickly fading Peggy, training with the team and their newest unofficial member, and searching for Bucky’s whereabouts, Steve was being run a bit ragged. A super-soldier he might be, but he was more mentally exhausted most days instead of physically tired.

Natasha approached him, the woman having been absent from training that morning, and he turned his attention toward her. “Nat?” Steve called in lieu of a greeting, seeing the seriousness of her features.

She handed him a large Manila envelope and he undid the cord and took out what was inside. There were pictures of a destroyed police station and his eyes widened when he saw that it was in Brooklyn. “What is this?” His face darkened the more pictures of the destruction he saw, not even bothering to ask her how she had gotten that, which would have been an insult to her spy skills.

“A police station in East Brooklyn was hit about two hours ago,” she explained. “It happened before the day shift change, so there was minimal staff. Even then, there is a reported three dead and as many as over a dozen injuries, five of them critical.” She turned to look at the training duo, and Steve saw that Sam and Tony had joined in, the former wearing a suit as he teamed up with Spider-Man against the Scarlet Witch and the Falcon.

“It’s the same group that hit Georgia and South Carolina,” she said, pulling out a picture from her back pocket. It was different than the rest and led Steve to believe that she had taken it herself, and likely gotten rid of the evidence. The reasons for that became clear when he saw the picture, of a symbol burned into one of the stones of the rubble, of a familiar octopus.

“HYDRA,” Steve hissed, fingers clenching around the picture until it was crumpled into a small ball. “Is there another target? Did you hear anything... about the Winter Soldier being involved?”

Natasha shook her head slowly. “Nothing, just whispers of their next destination.”

Steve nodded and swallowed, trying not to let the disappointment show too much on his face. “So, where are they hitting next? Is it Brooklyn, or Manhattan?”

She shook her head and pulled out a photograph of a vaguely familiar person. “Lagos.”

\- - - -

Tony hummed was he brought up the schematics of the Spider-suit for regular maintenance on its systems, and to perhaps review a bit of the Baby Monitor Footage... Just to check on the kid.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair and then down his bearded face. There he went again, starting to let himself care about someone, just like Peter. He had fought against caring about the kid and unable to resist it. Now, he was fighting another losing battle with Spider-Man, whom he hadn’t even seen his face yet! So, he was hoping to review the footage and perhaps find out who he was. It felt a bit like snooping, but he wanted to make sure he had tabs on him so in case things went south with the Accords, he’d be able to protect him when the time came.

“Fri, pull out the footage for SM-17’s baby monitor footage, baby girl.” He still had the Training Wheels Protocol on it, or he’d have asked the Karen. Tony smiled as he remembered when Peter had named the AI, still unable to believe how adorable his disaster kid was.

He chuckled as he thought of him as ‘his kid’ and didn’t shy away from it as he once would have. Peter had worked his way into his heart with his ramblings and excitable nature, and the way he generally cared about others. The interns at SI had all taken the kid under their wing, and seemed determined to fight Iron Man for the right to see him on one of his intern days.

“Boss, it appears the Baby Monitor Protocol and Training Wheels Protocol have been deactivated from suit SM-17.” Tony blinked a moment in bafflement, before bringing up the feed.

“What do you mean? Was it damaged in a fight?” Tony asked, already looking through the programs. The suit was made with a mesh of adamantium for protection against anything puncturing the suit. That meant that only something of the same material or of vibranium, or someone with super strength would be able to pierce it. However, as he looked through them, he saw that they were turned off, but there didn’t seem to be any damage to them at all.

“He... he turned them off?” he asked in shock. That didn’t seem possible, since then he would have had to hack into it to do so. Either he’d gotten someone to do it, or he’d hacked it himself. That meant, the person under the mask was smarter than he had first thought, and especially since he had gotten through not only Tony’s firewall, but Peter’s as well.

He smirked despite himself. “If I ever find out who he is, I’ll hire him immediately,” he promised, “or give him an internship.” He thought of the mayhem him and Peter might cause to the tower and he laughed, since he figured that’s how father’s felt.

Tony chuckled at his thoughts, but he was also a bit in awe that it wasn’t the scariest thing in the world anymore. While things with Pepper had ended badly, the woman so tired of always being afraid that he’d get himself killed one day being Iron Man, they had some how managed to remain friends. He’d like to think that things could be fixed and that they’d get back together, but he was only fooling himself.

Tony knew he would never stop being Iron Man, that he would likely die in some kind of battle; maybe tomorrow or in a month. He didn’t know. The only thing he did know was that he wanted to be Iron Man until he was either killed or was too old to put the suit on. His dream was to one day pass the mantel onto someone else, and only then could he retire.

He just hadn’t found anyone he thought would be ready to take on the Iron Man title. Tony had the thought that perhaps maybe Peter could be that person, but the thought of the kid putting his life in danger made nausea roil in his gut. He could no longer prevent Spider-Man from risking his life fighting crime, but he was he glad he didn’t seem to be dealing with big threats like the Avengers faced and that he was getting training from them.

Tony had thought that he would use work-out clothes and just the mask to train, and then he might get his fingerprints if he happened to touch anything. Unfortunately, the kid was smarter than that and had told Steve that it would be better to train in his suit, since he would be wearing it while patrolling and that way he could get used to moving in it. Steve had agreed and Tony had grumbled, thinking he had to come up with another plan. He suspected that the young man had already figured out that he wanted to figure out his identity and thus went out of his way to keep his identity safe from them.

“Alright, Friday, let’s see if we can turn them on remotely. Get in contact with Karen and see if she can turn them on for us,” Tony said. He had to admit that he enjoyed trying to find out ways on figuring out the other’s identity and getting thwarted by the younger hero. He’d heard from Wanda about the incident with the bus driver, and he had felt a great swell of pride at the kid’s ingenious rigging of the taser webs to safe that man’s life.

“Sorry, boss, but Karen has refused to go against her primary user and stated that she’ll fend off any attempts to hack the suit,” Friday said, and Tony could swear that he could detect amusement in her tone. Well, Jarvis had learned and perfected the art of sarcasm, so he didn’t think it was beyond the realm of impossible that FRIDAY could learn such things as well.

“I’ll de damned,” he laughed. He flexed his fingers with a slightly manic grin, not remembering the last time he’d enjoyed himself like this. Well, he could, when he had been designing the suit with Peter. “Well, let’s not disappoint then. I want to match our hacking skills against the Spider-brat and Karen. You up for the challenge, baby girl?”

The AI brought up several screens where he saw her trying to hack the suit. “I’ve already started, boss,” FRIDAY told him, and he was sure if she had a corporeal form, she be grinning right then.

 

\- - - -

 _They looking for saviors, I'm looking for safety_  
_They never gon' break me, take me  
Down on my knees, believe I'm never gon' beg or plead..._

\- - - -

Steve had missed the last two sessions with the kid in preparation to go to Lagos. He felt guilty about it, because even if he couldn’t see his face, his whole body projected his emotions (which Natasha was helping him to not be so obvious in his body language). So, he knew his shoulders had likely slumped in disappointment as the eyes of his mask had slightly squinted. He was glad he hadn’t seen his face, since he was sure if he had a baby face, he’d been in trouble.

His head lifted as there was a knock at his door, putting away the plans he had drawn up for Lagos. They were going in undercover, since there could be nothing to top off HYDRA and there was no guarantee that they didn’t have someone on the inside. After all, they knew when and where next to hit each and every police station. By the time they attacked the station in Brooklyn, they knew the Avengers would be on their trail, so that’s likely the reason they’d changed their plans of two police stations in each state.

They had first thought the man was going to sell the weapons, but the weapons taken weren’t even all of the arsenal. Natasha had been investigating the only way she knew how, which tended to lean a bit toward a more grey moral area. As Captain America, he should be scandalized by such things and try and do what was right. However, he knew that whether it was HYDRA or not, Rumlov was someone not to be taken lightly.

He opened the door and was met with the pilot of Iron Man, and he only slightly relaxed. Steve didn’t know how the man would feel or react to what they were doing, but it wouldn’t change anything. They had to get this done, and would do it without the billionaire’s help (both physical and financially) if he was coming here to persuade him to change his mind. Because Steve was sure he knew, since he wouldn’t be here mere hours away from the mission to Nigeria.

“Hey, Cap, so funny story,” he started as he walked in like he owned the place. Technically, he did. “The Spider-Baby tells me you’ve gone and missed two training sessions with him. Which can’t be true, since you’re the one that insisted we bring him into our training sessions.”

Steve ran a hand through his blonde hair as he looked at the man with a rueful smile. “He told you? Or did you bribe the truth out of him with Gold Fish?”

Tony scoffed. “Of course not, I’d already placed that order of ten family size packs,” he said with a shrug. He looked over to the bed where Steve hadn’t moved his bag where he’d stuffed a few pairs of clothes for the mission. You could never go wrong with at least three pairs of clothes even for a mission that took mere hours. Steve had learned that the hard way, and he still had the ugly mustard colored shirt and leopard print pants to prove it which he’d hastily bought on one of his previous missions.

“But in all seriousness, Steve, this is a bad idea,” he told him. “You need to inform the Nigerian government of this, of your impending arrival. If you’re caught, this will make more waves where we want nothing but still waters.”

Steve knew the man would try this and couldn’t really say he blamed him. They’d be illegally entering a sovereign nation on second-hand knowledge that they target would be there. If things went bad, it would surely blow up in their faces. Only, the risk of losing Rumlov and any information he had on Bucky’s whereabouts was more tempting than the one to do the right thing. “I can’t,” Steve sighed. “The attacks have always had one thing in common, which is plans to things Rumlov shouldn’t have known. He had someone on the inside in every attack, and I know this time won’t be any different.” He had closed the door, since he didn’t want anyone to overhear them.

“I inform the Nigeria government, Rumlov gets tipped off, and he’s in the wind again. We might not get another chance like this one, nor have any way of preventing it.” He moved to his bed where he finished shoving the rest of clothes in his bag that he had decided to take, having gone with darker colors at the moment.

“Don’t go, Steve. This could be a trap,” Tony insisted. “No one knew of those attacks that happened, a lot of them are dead. So, what makes this different? Why would he act different now? I’m telling you, Steve, this is a trap.”

Steve sat down on the bed heavily. “It’s possible, but I still have to go. Rumlov might know something about Bucky, Tony. I... I have to go.”

“This could blow up in your face, and then all of us would be in trouble; every person that will be affected by the Accords.” He had sat down in the chair at his desk, watching as Steve fought an inner battle with himself.

“What if it was Rhodey?” Steve asked suddenly. He felt guilty for the words almost immediately as Tony’s face twisted into an expression he was sure he’d worn when he figured out that Bucky had been alive this whole time, brainwashed by HYDRA. He wouldn’t wish it on anyone, least of all on the Lieutenant Colonel. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, putting his face in hands before he rubbed them and then threaded them through his blonde hair.

“You go,” Tony said, “and you risk us all.” He stood from the chair, his posture angry but resigned. “But if that was Rhodey that had been mind raped for all this time, I would go.” Steve looked at him, face twisted in what might have been regret. “Go.”

The man turned and moved to the door, and even if he was angry, Tony knew that if their positions were reversed, he’d stop at nothing to find his best friend, would go through anything and anyone. He paused before exiting the room. “If you fail, you can pretty much guarantee that the Avengers are over. There’s something coming, bigger than we’ve ever faced before, and the world will need the Avengers. So, don’t you fail.”

Tony walked out of the door.

\- - - -

 _Can't take me down now_  
_My feet on the ground now_  
_Fight 'til I'm down now..._

\- - - -

Wanda grit her teeth as the fire from the explosion raged against the barrier she had around Rumlov. _’Lift it, lift him,’_ her mind screamed at her, knowing she couldn’t hold it. “Arrrgh!” she cried out as she lifted him up as fast as she could, her brow dotted with sweat from her exertion.

 

_Say it out loud now..._

 

“No,” she cried out an instant before she lost control of the barrier. She watched in horror as the blast went sideways, one side only burning the oxygen in the air. However, the other side rushed through the building next to it, causing a chain reaction along the three floors.

She lifted her hands to her mouth in horror as she watched, her eyes watering as the screams of people around her and in the decimated building filled her ears. She could feel Steve’s hands pulling her back and away, back to the Quinjet most likely, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the partially building. There were people in there... people had just died in there!

 

_Say it out loud..._

 

“Wanda, come on,” Steve hissed urgently, and he was surprised that he could barely move her frozen body. The people gathered had started to point at them, some crying but more of them looking angry. It was taking all his self-control not to grab Wanda and toss her over his shoulder.

As for the young woman, she was barely aware of Steve trying to get her to move as she continued to stare at the building, where who knows how many people had just died. “What have I done?” she gasped, her breath hitching in a sob. This wasn’t supposed to happen! She was meant to be a hero! An Avenger that protected people and keep them from getting hurt!

“It wasn’t your fault Wanda,” Steve told her, finally succeeding in getting her to move away from the scene before the people started rioting. As they ran for the Quinjet, the words Peter had spoken to her just days before echoed in her head.

_’You’re a hero, of course, Wanda!’_

He had sounded so sure and wearing that happy smile on his young face. As he looked back over her shoulder at the building that was burning, she wondered if Peter, or anyone else for that matter, would truly believe she was a hero.

“Tony, come in,” she heard Steve on the com up front. The door had closed and they were starting to take off.

“Yeah, Cap, I read you loud and clear. What’s the situation?” Tony asked over the line.

The man sighed and hunched his shoulders, the jacket he wore tight on his broad shoulders. “It’s... something happened, Tony. It’s bad.” There was silence on the other end for a few moments before Tony’s voice came back on.

“Tell me when you get here. The line might not be secure.”

“Roger,” Steve said, hanging up the comm. He looked toward the back of the Quinjet, seeing Wanda sitting in the seat as she stared blankly at the floor. Steve hoped they were able to get through this.

 

_...are you ready for war?_

 

\- - - -

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think, comment and like please.


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